Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/ournewwayroundwo01coff 



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Yosemite Falls. — Page 



OUR NEW WAY 



ROUND THE WORLD. 



CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN, 

if/ 

AUTHOR OF "STORY OF LIBERTY," "BOYS OF ; 78," ;i MY DATS AM),^^^ 

ON THE BATTLEFIELD," "FOLLOWING THE FLAG," 

" WINNING HIS WAY," ETC. 



CO 






BOSTON : 
ESTES AND LAURIAT 



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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 

Fields, Osgood, & Co.. 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 

Copyright, 1876, 
By Samuel Walker & Co. 

Copyright, 1880, 
By Estes & Lauriat. 



By Transfer 

D. : ^ibHc Library 

MAY 1 o 1938 



University Press : 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



WITHDRAWN 

121151 r 







TO MY WIFE, 

WHO MADE WITH ME THE TOUR OF THE WORLD, 

THIS VOLUME 

IS MOST AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 



YC)X\ 



* 






TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

NEW TOKK TO MARSEILLES. 

Leaving New. York. — Steamer Persia. —War in Europe. — Important 
Events. — Reform Movement in England. — Riot at Hyde Park. — Meet- 
ing at Guildhall. — People in Earnest. — Affairs on the Continent. — 
Visit to Paris. — Victor Emanuel at Venice. — Evacuation of Rome by 
French Troops. — Coronation at Pesth. — Routes of Travel through 
' Europe. — Rural Scenes in France. — From Paris to Marseilles. — Val- 
ley of the Rhone. — Marseilles at Christmas. — Scenes in the Harbor. . 1 

CHAPTER n. 

ON THE MEDITERRANEAN. 

The Great Steamship Companies. — Peninsular and Oriental. — Message- 
ries Imp^riales. — Austrian Lloyds. — Routes across the Mediterranean. 

— Italian Line. — Greek Line. — Tide of Travel. — Departure from Mar- 
seilles. — The Euphrates. — Her Cargo. — Straits of Bonifacio. — Strom- 
boli. — Scylla and Charybdis. — Across the Adriatic. — Morea. — Na- 
varino. — Gulf of Coran. — Ancient Spartans. — A Hermit. — A Dream 
of the Past. — Arrival at Piraeus. — Salamis. — Getting Ashore. — Noble 
Greeks. — Athens. — Cretan Refugees. — To Constantinople. — Syrian 
Coast 10 

CHAPTER III. 

MODERN EGYPT. 

Approach to Alexandria. — The Harbor. — The Orient. — Scenes in the 
City. — The Old and the New. — The Viceroy. — Cotton Culture. — 
Railroads. — Sons of the Pasha, — Over the Delta. — Irrigation. — The 
Nile. . . 23 

CHAPTER IV. 

CAIRO. 

Hotel du Nil. — Houses in the City. — Women of Egypt. — Tradesmen. 

— Waiters. — Donkeys. — Ploughing. — Ramazan. — Advancement. — 
Miesisns. — Persecutions of Christians. — Future Prospect. • . .32 



Viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

THE DELTA OF THE NILE. 

The View from the Bluffs. — Heliopolis. — The Citadel. — Mamelukes. — 
Mehemit Ah. — Pyramids. — Arab Sheik. — Bedouins. — Yankee Doodle. 41 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE SUEZ CANAL. 

The Project. — M. Lesseps. — Charter of the Company. — The Isthmus. — 
Old Canals. — Pharaoh Necho. — Bonaparte. — Commercial Enterprise. 

— Opposition of England. — The Country. — Commencement of the Work. 

— Size of the Canal. — Bay of Pelusium. — Manufactured Stone. — Port 
Said. — Excavators. — Difficulties encountered. — Lake Menzalah. — 
Lake Ballah. — Lake Timseh. — Ismalia. — Salt Basin. — Children of 
Israel. — Suez. — Capital of the Company. — Lottery. — Expenditures. 47 

CHAPTER VII. 

FKOM EGYPT TO INDIA. 

Easter Sunday. — A Gala-Day. — Scenes in the City. — Decay of Moham- 
medan Faith. — Overland Passengers. — Steamer Baroda - Starting 

for India. — Gulf of Suez. — Sinai and Red Sea. — Pilgrims to Mecca. 

— Mocha. — Dangerous Navigation. — Light-houses. — Island of Perim. 

— How the English obtained it. — The Gate of Tears. — Sons of Cush. 

— Aden. — Natives. — Scenes in the Harbor. — Hot Weather. — The 
Punka. — The Orchestra of the Steamer 62 

CHAPTER VIH. 

BOMBAY. 

View of Harbor. — Byculla Hotel. — Population of City. — European Sec- 
tion. — Native Quarters. — Shigrams. — Native Oxen. — Suburbs of the 
City. — Parsees. — Street Scenes. — Washing up. — Children. — Jewelry. 

— Population of India. — Policemen. — Gods in the Wall. — Toddy- 
Seller. — Currency. — Elephants. — Old Temples. - - The Census. — 
Origin of the Parsees. — Their Towers of Silence. . . . .80 

CHAPTER IX. 

BRITISH INDIA. 

John Bull's Farm. — Mountains. — Bivers. — Cities of India. — Popula- 
tion. — Governor-General. — East India Company. — Opium. . . 93 

CHAPTER X. 

THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA. 

Facilities for Travel. — Great Indian Peninsular Railway. — Labor of 
Building. — Class Cars. — Effect of Railways on Caste and Idolatry. . 99 

CHAPTER XT 

HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 

Hindoos. — Aborigines of India. — The Vedas. — Origin of the Hindoo 
Nation. — The Aryans. — Caste. — Brahmans. — Philosophical Age. . 108 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. LX 

CHAPTER XII. 

THROUGH THE DECCAN. 

The Ghats. — Nassick. — Hindoo Water-Carrier. — Jungles. — General 
Features of Central India. — Gorgeous Apparel. — Silver Ornaments. 
—■ Heat. — Nagpore. — Residency Hotel. 116 

CHAPTER XIIL 

BIDING IN A DAK. 

The Dak. — Romantic Ride. — Kamptel. — Micawber Philosophy. — 
Karyea. — Thrilling Story of the Mutiny. — Treatment of the Natives. 

— The Ryots. — Tigers. — Seonee. — Tarboots. — Obstinate Driver. — 
Moonshee. — Chaputies. — Mail Carts. — Effect of the Moon. — Ner- 
budda River 124 

CHAPTER XIV. 

IN THE HEART OF INDIA. 

Jubbulpore. — Valley of the Nerbudda. — Religion of the Hindoos. -^ 
Junction of Jubbulpore and Peninsular Railroad — Allahabad. — Great 
Eastern Hotel 140 

CHAPTER XV. 

SCENES IN ALLAHABAD. 

Shaving. — Junction of the Jumna and Ganges. — Situation of Allahabad. 

— Ancient Pillar. — Market-Place. — - Deep Well. — Chusora Bagh. — 
The Future of Allahabad. — Population. — Boston Ice. . . . 147 

CHAPTER XVI. 

NATIVE SCHOOLS. 

Missionary Operations. — Praying by Machinery. — Desire for Education. 

— Rev. Mr. Walsh. — School. — Proficiency of Mr. Walsh's Pupils. — 
Hindoo Cosmogony. — Getting at the Truth. . . . . . 154 

CHAPTER XVII. 

FROM ALLAHABAD TO BENARES. 

Country North of Allahabad. — Its Fertility. — Density of Population. — 
Mirzapoor. — Rev. Mr. Lambert. — British Goods. — Temple of Kali. — 
Tyranny of Caste. — Servants. — Mogul Serai. — Benares Station. — 
Antiquity of Benares. — Temples and Mosques. — Victoria Hotel. . 163 

CHAPTER XVm. 

THE CITY OF BENARES. 

A Morning Ride through the City. — Care for Birds. — Monkey Pagoda. 

— Pranks of the Monkeys. — Benares a Holy City. — Bathing in the 
Ganges. — Burning the Dead. — Ghats. — Pagodas. — Palaces. — Power 
of the Brahmans waning. — Charming View. — A Glance at the Past. 

— Golden Pagoda. — Sacred Well. — Shiva. — Temple of Una Poorena. 170 



X TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

THE BABOOS. 

Man Mundil. — Beautiful Silk Goods. — The Dealings of England with 
the Hindoos. — Snake-Charmers. — Sarnath. — Gautama. — Buddha. . 181 

CHAPTER XX. 

DOWN THE VALLEY OP THE GANGES. 

The Bengalese. — The Santhals. — Moorshedabad. — Suraja Dowla. — 
Patna. — Bankapore. — Plassey. — Lord Clive. — Turning-Point in His- 
tory ..'...-.. .190 

CHAPTER XXL 

OUR FIRST NIGHT IN CALCUTTA. 

Arrival. — Scene in the Harbor. — A Bath. — A Wedding Procession. — 
The Mission Home. — Miss Brittan's School. — Moral Battle-field. — 
Native Society. — Hindoo Newspapers. — Domestic Life. — Educated 
Natives. — Moral Leverage , 19a 

CHAPTER XXII. 

MISSIONARY OPERATIONS. 

Dr. McLeod's Visit. — Translation of the Bible. — Obstacles. — Native 
Converts. — Roman Catholic Church. — Exorcising of Devils. . 205 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

LIFE IN INDIA. 

The Season. — Hot Period. — Rainy Months. — Monsoons. — Swarming 
of Insects. — White Ants. — Cool Season. — Cyclones. — Famines of 
1770 and 1866. — Burning of the Dead. — Government Buildings. — 
Style of Living. — Ride in a Shigram 209 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

ACROSS THE BAY OF BENGAL. 

The Clan Alpine. — Leaving Calcutta. — Down the Hoogly. — Scenes on 
the River. — Explosion. — Terrible Scene. — Burial at Sea. . . .217 

CHAPTER XXV. 

THE SPICE ISLANDS. 

Andaman Islands. — Coast of Burmah. — Cocoa Islands. — Malay Penin- 
sula. — Insect Life. — Province of Wellesely. — Population. . .221 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

PENANG. 

Phosphorescence of the Sea. — The Town. — In a Sampan. — Duck Ped~ 
ler. — Prince of Wales Hotel. — Spice Trade. — Chinese at Penang. — 
Down the Coast. — The Dorian . 226 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER XXVIL 

SINGAPORE. 

Town of Malacca. — Arrival at Singapore. — Steamers. — Harbor. — 
Climate. — Fruits. — Population. — Scenes in the City. — Whampoa's 
Garden. — Victoria Eegias. — Fan-Palm. ...... 23? 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

LIFE IN MALACCA. 

Fire-Flies. — The Natives. — Ride to Selita. — Rank Vegetation. — Tigers. 
— Gutta-Percha. — Pepper Culture. — Climate. — White Ants. . . 242 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

FROM SINGAPORE TO HONG KONG. 

Chinese Passengers. — Their Customs and Habits. — Curiosity. — Gam- 
bling. — Pride. — Expressing an Opinion. — Approaching Hong Kong. . 247 

* CHAPTER XXX. 

GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF CHINA. 

China compared with the United States. — The Flowery Kingdom. — 
Early History. — Chronology. — Dynasties. — Credible History. — Euro- 
peans hi China. 253 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

HONG KONG. 

The Town from the Harbor. — The Island. — Shipping. — Our Admiral. — 
Hong Kong Hotel. — Sunday Morning. — Church Services. — Ride in a 
Sedan 260 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

OPIUM. 

The Saloons. — Preparation of the Drug. — Smokers. — Beginning and 
Growth of the Traffic. — War with England. — Opinion of Englishmen 
concerning the Traffic 267 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

FROM HONG KONG TO CANTON. 

American Steamers. — Finger Nails. — Passengers. — Bogue Forts. — 
Whampoa Junks. — First Sight nf Canton. — Scene in Harbor. — Family 
Boats. — White Cloud Hills. — Foreigners 273 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE INFLUENCE OF CONFUCIUS. 

His Birth. — Early Life. — Elevation to Office. — Woman's Charms. — 
His Poetry. — Annotation of the Classics. — Foundation of Political 
System. " . 279 



Xll TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE XXXV. 

SOUTHERN CHINA. 

The Eighteen Provinces. — Canton River. — The Country. — Cities. — 
Exports. — Manufactures. — Silk Culture. — Macao. — Cooly Trade. . 283 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

A RAMBLE IN CANTON. 

Streets. — Houses. — Goods. — Provisions. — What the People eat. — For- 
eign Devils. — Old Hairy. — Musicians. — Apothecary. — Small Feet . 290 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

1HE TEMPLE OF THE OCEAN BANNER. 

Island of Honam. — Approach to the Temple. — The Holy Umbrella. — 
The Three Precious Ones. — Buddhist Worship. — Tauist Religion. — 
Old Boy. — Transmigration. — Luck-Blocks 297 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

MORAL FORCES. 

Presbyterian Mission. — Medical Mission. — Dr. Preston. — Dr. Keer. — 
Scene in the Hospital. — Visit to the Chapel. — The Congregation. — 
French Catholics. — Their Cathedral 304 

CHAPTER XXXLX. 

ON THE CANTON RIVER. 

In a Sampan. — Pigeon English. — Fishing with Cormorants. — Flower- 
Boats. — Dinner-Party. — Duck-Boats. — Benevolent Societies. — Mu- 
tual-Aid Companies. 309 

CHAPTER XL. 

DP THE COAST OF CHINA. 

The Erl-King. — Swatow. — River Han. — Fishing-Boats. — Emigration. 
- Amoy. — Foochow. — Black Tea. — Fu-kien. — Timber. — Junks. . 316 

CHAPTER XLL 

APPROACH TO SHANGHAE. 

The Wusung. — Meadows. — The Country. — Steamers and Ships.— 
Shanghae. — The Hen Fever. — Gardens of China. — Admiral Parker. 
— Growth of Shanghae. — Landing. — Astor House 322 

CHAPTER XLII. 

IN THE CITY OF SHANGHAE. 

^iew from the Hotel. — Scenes in the Harbor. — Transportation. — Delta 
")f the Yangtse. — Health. — Missionaries. — Tea-Houses and Shops. — 
Flowery Names. — Inscriptions — The Faith and Charity Shop. — Wor- 
hip of Ancestors. — Offerings to the Dead 328 



TABLE OF CONTENTS Xll> 

CHAPTER XLIII. 

FUNG SHUEY. 

A Land of Superstitions. — Foggy Weather. — Meaning of Fung Shuey. 

— Sien Sangs. — Stroll through the City. — Disturbance of Fung Shuey. 

— Opposition to Innovation. — Objection to Railroads. — Governor-Gen- 
eral Tseng. — Gold-Mines. — Strength and Weakness of Government. . 338 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

FESTIVALS. 

Native Watchmen. — Musquitoes. — Five Emperors — Demons of Dark- 
ness. — Climate. — Display on the River. — Bookstores. — The Poet 
Lin. — Close of Festival 348 

CHAPTER XLV. 

ROMANISM IN CHINA. 

The Soochow Road. — Chow Chow. — Graves. — Children's Tomb. — 
Foundling Hospital. — Jesuits. — What they are doing. — Restoration 
of Property. — Ceremonial. — Number of Catholic Priests. — Protes- 
tant Religion. — Progress 354 

CHAPTER XL VI. 

UP THE YANGTSE. 

Size of the River. — Inundation. — Avenues for Trade. — Steamers. — 
Kiang Loon. — Kiang Yang. — The Country. — Chin Kiang. — Grand 
Canal. — Salt Port. — Silver Coin. — Timber Rafts. — Nankin. — Late 
Rebellion. — Little Orphan Island. — Poyang Lake. — Merchants of 
China 361 

CHAPTER XLVn. 

CENTRAL CHINA. 

Whang-choo. — Military Encampment. — Soldiers. — Military Tactics. — 
Hankow. — The three Cities. — Contrast between Old and New Civiliza- 
tions. — Foreigners. — Wu-chung. — Bishop Williams. — Yamun of the 
Governor-General. — School. — Women of China. — Their Degraded 
Condition 374 

CHAPTER XLVIII. 

COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION. 

When Established. — Theory of the System. — University Buildings. - 
Temple (jf Perfect Justice. — Degrees. — Students. — Jury. — Ovations. 

— Successful Competitors. — Democratic Principle. — Reverence paid 
to the Classics. — Students on a Lark. — Chop-Sticks. — Visit to the 
Governor 384 



XJ.V TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XLIX. 

CULTIVATION OF TEA. 

Export from Hankow. — Qualities of Tea. — Its Use in China. — Early- 
Trade. — Its Consumption in the United States. — Green Tea. — The 
Shrub. — Gathering the Leaves. — Preparation for Market. — Packing. 

— Tasting. — Tea-Saloons. — Value of Exports. — Commercial Relations. 393 

CHAPTER L. 

THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 

Opinion of Mr. Burlingame. — University of Pekin. — Official Position of 
Foreigners. — Eeactionary Party. — Ancient Policy of the Govern- 
ment. — What Foreigners ask. — Physical Force of England. — Position 
of the Chinese. — Introduction of Steamers. — Attitude of California 
and Oregon toward Chinese » . . . 402 

CHAPTER LI. 

NORTHERN CHINA. 

When to ■visit Pekin. — Cheefoo. — Tientsin. — Chinese Carts. — Pass- 
ports. — Description of Pekin. — The Great Wall. — Passage to Japan. 

— In a Typhoon . . 413 

CHAPTER LII. 

APPROACH TO NAGASAKI. 

The Harbor. — Fortifications. — Island of Pappenberg. — Intercourse of 
Foreign Nations with the Japanese. — Xavier. — The Jesuits. — The 
Islands 418 

CHAPTER LIII. 

WESTERN JAPAN. 

Nagasaki. — A Shopkeeper. — Japanese Ladies. — Baths. — Tea-Houses. 

— Education. — Minstrels. — Japanese Art. — Yokohama. — Conserva- 
tive Japanese. — Mysteries of Crinoline. ...... 424 

CHAPTER LIV. 

THROUGH THE INLAND SEA. 

lovely Morning. — Natural Arch. — Persecution of Christians by Bud- 
dhist Priests. — Coast of Kuisiu. — Town of Kokura. — Japanese 
Graves. — A Funeral Procession. — Sinto Belief. — Spiritual Festival. 

— The Tokaido. — Town of Chofu. — Japanese Mode of Travelling. — 

A Charming Panorama. . . 431 

CHAPTER LV. 

HIOGO. 

Countless Sails Rice-Fields. — Hiogo, the Port of Osaka. — Manufac- 
tures and Trade. — Country around Osaka. — Climate. — Harbor. — 
Going Ashore. — Looking at Curiosities. — Tea-House and Gardens. — 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV 

Temp\e of the Sun. — Worshippers. — Japanese Honor. — Social Hab- 
its. — Hats. — Picnic. — Coolies. — Population. — Fusiyama. — Bay of 
Yedo. — Villages 440 

CHAPTER LVI. 

YOKOHAMA. 

Situation of Yokohama. — Harbor. — Hotel d'Europe. — Curio Street. — 
Houses and Shops. — Shopman. — Bronzes. — Photographs. — Foreign 
Trade of Yokohama. — Government of Japan. — The Tycoon. — Civil 
War in Japan. — The Darnios. — The Flora of Japan. — Kamakura, its 
Location, Temples, and Shrines. — Temple of Hachiman. — Dia-boots. 448 

CHAPTER LVII. 

YEDO. 

The Capital of Japan. — How to visit it. — Yakonins. — Situation of Yedo. 

— The Castle. — Soto-Siro. — Bridges and Streets. — Population of 
Yedo. — Description of City. 458 

CHAPTER LVIII. 

FROM JAPAN TO CALIFORNIA. 

Pacific Mail Company. — Freight. — Chinese Passengers. — Magnificent 
Steamers. — Leaving Yokohama. — Search for Deserters. — Passen- 
gers. — The Voyage. — Our Native Land 464 

CHAPTER LIX. 

CALIFORNIA. 

Aladdin's Lamp. — Discovery of Gold. — Size of California. — Develop- 
ment of the State. — Culture of the Grape. — Silk Culture. — Educa- 
tion. — Lincoln School. — Churches. — Fertility of the Country. — Its 
Fruits. — A Paradise • • • • 468 

CHAPTER LX. 

YOSEMITE. 

The Big Trees and Yosemite Valley- — Ride to Mariposa. — Hatch's.— 
In the Saddle. — Arrival at Clark's. — Digger Indians. — Big Trees. 

— On Horseback in a Tree. — Calaveras Grove. — A Description of the 
Big Trees. — A Ride through the Woods. — Nature's Cathedral.— 
Situation of Yosemite. — View of the Valley. — Distances and Eleva- 
tions. — Mr. Hutchins's Hotel. — El Capitan. — Bridal Veil. — Yosemite 
Falls. — Indian Names. — North and South Domes 476 

CHAPTER LXI. 

SALT LAKE. 

Approaching the City. — Early Settlement. — Forbidding Prospect.— 
Covenant at Nauvoo. — Emigration to Salt Lake. — Church Police. — 
Mormon Law. — Tabernacle Square. — Inside and Outside. — The 

Harem. — Brigham's Wife and Concubines > 493 

b 



XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER LXII. 

THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 

Central and Union Pacific Railroad Companies. — Work commenced. — 
Hard Work for Engineers. — Difficulties encountered 501 

CHAPTER LXIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

Completion of the Pacific Railroad. — America the Teacher of the Na- 
tions. ......... .... 506 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Yosemite Falls . Frontisj. 


riece 




PAGE 


Westminster Abbey . . 


1 


Lyons from the Park of 




the Tete D'Or . . . 


6 




16 


Theatre of Herod . . . 


21 




23 


Interior of a Kiosque in 




the Seraglio .... 


24 


A modern Rebecca . . 


26 


Mother and Child . . . 


27 


Summer Parlor in the Se- 






28 


Ismail Pasha 


29 


Irrigation 


31 


An Egyptian Villa . . 


32 


A ready Writer .... 


35 


An Egyptian Temple . . 


36 


Temple of Isis .... 


41 


An Arabian Bazar . . 


46 


Ruins at Karnak . . . 


50 


An Eastern Cafe . . . 


55 


Mountains near the Red 




Sea 


62 


Easter Sunday .... 


63 




65 


4,000 Years ago ... 


69 


Bound for Mecca . . . 


70 



Temple-Palace of Rham 




SES III 


73 


Natives of Aden . . . 


75 


An Arab Fountain 


76 


Rather warm .... 


78 


The jolly Mariners . 


79 


Pagoda, — Bombay . . 


80 


At full Speed . . . 


83 


Washing up .... 


86 


Jewels and Ornaments 


87 


Toddy and Devotion 


89 


A princely Equipage . 


95 


Head Work .... 


104 


House in India . . . 


111 


Dwelling-house in India 


116 


Taking a Drink . . 


117 


Interesting Discovery . 


119 


A Nagpore Coach . . 


121 


Our Quarters .... 


122 


Getting under Way . 


125 


A steady Team . . . 


128 


Dead Set 


129 


The Master Race . . 


131 


A Man-Eater . . . 


133 


Midnight Festival . . 


134 


Stirring up a Hindoo 


135 


Protection against Sun- 






139 



xvm 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGK 

Raising the Wind . . 146 
Indian Garden Scene . 147 
Mothers of India . . 151 
Praying by Hand . . '. 155 
Praying by Water . . 156 
The Monkey in his na- 
tive Jungle . . . . 171 

On the Sly 172 

Disputed Territory . . 173 

The Sacred Stream . . 174 

Native Cottages . . . 177 

Indian Pagoda . . . 180 

Buddhist Temple . . . 188 

Wedding Procession . 196 

An East-Indian Bayadere 198 

East-Indian Kiosque . . 205 

Casting out Devils . . 208 

Mountains of India . . 210 

Mosque at Hoogly . . 218 

Valley of the Irawaddy 223 
"No have Eyes, no can 

see" 227 

Poultry Boy .... 228 

Malay House .... 230 

Fruits of Malacca . . 236 

Avenue at Singapore . 239 

Pan-Palm 241 

Malayan Lady .... 243 

Chop-Sticks 248 

Expressing an Opinion . 250 

The Flowery Kingdom 253 

Chinese Servant ... 255 

"Thereby hangs a Tail" 264 

How we go to Church . 266 

Opium-Smokers .... 272 

Natural Ornaments . 273 

Temple of Confucius . . 279 

A Cooly 288 



PAGE 

An open Countenance 291 

Going to Market . . 292 

The old Hairy .... 294 

The Orchestra . . . 295 

Sole of a Chinese Shoe . 296 

Buddhist Mosque . . 301 

Transmigration .... 302 

The Grinders .... 303 

Flower-Boat 312 

Duck-Boat 314 

Fast Friends 318 

Shanghaes at Home . . 323 
Battle of Shanghae . . 327 
Water View near Shang- 
hae 328 

Chinese Coach . . . 329 

English Legation . . . 330 
Remembering departed 

Friends 337 

Fung Shuey .... 341 

Black Spirits and white 349 

Monastery Chapel. . . 354 

Porcelain Tower . . 368 

Little Orphan Island . 370 

One of the upper Class 381 
Chinese Mandarin and 

Wife 382 

Chin Chin 391 

The Governor .... 392 

The young Plant . . 396 

Transplanting .... 396 

Firing Tea 398 

Packing ...... 398 

Garden of the Empress 416 

Japanese Bazar .... 424 

Preparing for a Smoke 425 

Devoted Love .... 426 

Japanese Ladies . . . 427 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



XIX 



PAGE 

Minstrels 428 

The Mystery of Crinoline 430 
Scenery op the Western 

Coast ....... 432 

Japanese House . . . 435 

The Cango 437 

Pleased to see us . . 443 
Temple to the Sun God- 
dess 444, 

Well protected . . . 445 

Porter 446 

Fire-Engine .... 450 

The Panier 451 



PASS 

Stotsbashi 453 

Damio and Attendants . 458 

Street in Damio's Quarter 463 

Water-Cure 467 

Mining in California . 469 

Yosemite Valley . . . 476 

One of the Big Trees . 479 

South Dome 483 

Equipped for Yosemite 485 

Nevada Falls .... 486 

El Capitan 487 

The Cathedral .... 490 

The Tabernacle ... 495 



MAPS. 

PAGE 

Routes on the Mediterranean 13 

The Delta of the Nile . . . : 49 

Elevation of the Suez Canal 53 

Overland Route East 67 

India 100 

From India to China 225 

Southern China 261 

Canton and adjacent Islands 275 

Northern China 362 

Western Japan , 419 

The Inland Sea ... ..... 439 

The Eastern Shore 459 

Yosemite Valley 486 

Pacific Railroad , 503 



OUR NEW WAT ROUND THE WORLD. 



CHAPTEE I. 

FEOM NEW YOEK TO MAKSEILLES. 

IT was a hot, sweltering day, the 25th of July, 1866, 
when, accompanied by my wife, I sailed down the 
harbor of New York on the steamer Persia of the Cunard 
line, bound for Europe, not then anticipating that our 
journey would extend around the globe. 

The war between Austria, on the one side, and Prussia 
allied with Italy, on the other, had come on almost as 
suddenly as a cyclone of the Indian Ocean. The battle 
of Sadowa had been fought, and it was feared that, instead 
of its leading to a cessation of hostilities, it was but the 
beginning of a struggle which might involve all Europe. 

It was apparent, however, when we arrived at Liver- 
pool, that the strife was at an end ; but there were other 
important events transpiring abroad interesting to an 
American journalist. 

In England the reform movement, which has since re- 
sulted in the extension of the franchise throughout the 
United Kingdom, was just beginning. Mr. Gladstone, in 
Parliament, had brought forward, a bill that had been 
defeated, and which defeat had swept Earl Eussell's min- 
istry out of office. Lord Derby was appointed Premier, 
and Disraeli Chancellor of the Exchequer. The people 
were greatly excited over the arbitrary act of the govern- 

1 A 



2 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

ment in preventing them by an armed force from holding 
a public meeting in Hyde Park. 

Blood had been shed. The temper of the people was 
rising. Reform clubs were parading the streets of Lon- 
don at night with lanterns and torches. Placards and 
' handbills, distributed to the crowd, called upon them to 
remember that they were Britons, that the time had come 
when they must assert their rights or lose the liberties 
then enjoyed. 

The night after our arrival in London a great meeting 
was held in the G-uild Hall, presided over by the Lord 
Mayor. There was a dense crowd in the dusty old hall, 
at one end of which were two huge wooden figures of 
Gog and Magog, more hideous than the Hindoo Jugger- 
naut. There was a mightier crowd outside the doors, — 
workmen from Southwark and Clerkenwell, fishwomen 
from Billingsgate and St. Giles, — shouting for Glad- 
stone and Bright, and joining in the chorus of " John 
Brown " and " Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are march- 
ing." 

The people were in earnest for an enlargement of the 
franchise, but they were in thraldom to rank, title, and 
privilege. The moneyed power of the realm was against 
them, as also Church and State and the precedents of 
English history. Westminster Abbey, with its tattered 
banners of the Order of the Bath hanging from the lofty 
roof, covered with the dust of centuries ; the tombs of 
the kings in the Confessor's Chapel; the buff breeches 
of the West End footmen ; the Lord Chancellor's wig : 
the golden bawbles in the jewel-room of the Tower ; 
Oxford ; the mighty enginery of an Established Church, 
— all were drags and blocks retarding and impeding the 
movement. It was an interesting moment in the life 
of a great nation, big with results as yet unmeasured. 
But from that hour the march has been towards democ- 





*■■■■':. -- ■■ 



WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 



FROM NEW YORK TO MARSEILLES. 6 

racy. Carlyle sees in the distance only the plunge of 
Niagara, while the friends of the measure believe that 
it will be a crown of glory to the nation. 

Upon the Continent Prussia was commencing the 
consolidation of the German Empire, while Austria, al- 
though she had won Custoza, was preparing to accept the 
situation into which she had been forced by her defeat 
at Sadowa, yielding her former supremacy in German 
affairs on the one hand, and on the other retiring from 
Venetia. 

After visiting Paris, and spending a few weeks in 
Switzerland, we reach Venice in season to witness its 
evacuation by the Austrians, — to see their last parade 
on the Grand Piazza, and hear the parting salute resound- 
ing along the water-ways of that wonderful old city. 
Then upon the heel of their departure we behold the 
entrance of the troops of Italy, received with exultant 
shouts and the wildest demonstrations of gladness, — 
with clanging bells, booming cannon, the decoration of 
old palaces by day and their illumination by night, — 
avenues and arches blooming with banners, while the 
people, crazy with joy, embrace each other, dance, shout, 
weep, and bless the Holy Virgin for hearing their sup- 
plications and granting deliverance from their oppres- 
sors ! 

Victor Emanuel comes, and there is a revival of the 
gorgeous pageantry of former days, when Venice was 
mistress of the seas, when to her bazaars came the mer- 
chandise of all climes, and her merchants were princely 
senators. 

But it is not our intention to dwell upon events trans- 
piring in Europe during the years 1866 - 67. The ob- 
ject of this volume is rather to note what is to be seen 
along the new highway of the world. We pass over the 



4 OUR NEW "WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

evacuation of Eome by the French troops, and the feverish 
excitement in Italy during that winter. We cannot linger 
in the aisles and courts of the Great Exposition, nor speak 
of the pageantries which attended the visit of the Czar, 
the King of Prussia, the Emperor of Austria, and the 
Sultan to the exhibition of the products of all countries, 
the arts and industries of all lands. We cannot speak 
in detail of the advance of the reform movement in 
England, the speeches of Disraeli, Bright, Gladstone, and 
Lowe — the four great debaters of Parliament — on that 
eventful night in March when the heir of England's 
throne, and the nobility of the realm, sat in the gal- 
leries, and listened with profound attention to the de- 
bate. Nor can we go down to Hungary again to witness 
the gorgeous ceremonies at Buda-Pesth, when Count An- 
drassy placed the iron crown of Charlemagne upon the 
brow of Francis Joseph, and completed the reconciliation 
between Austria and Hungarj 7 . 

These were the memorable events of the year, demand- 
ing the attention and presence of a journalist. Scenes so 
remote required hasty journeys from London to Venice, 
from Paris to Pesth, from Eome to Berlin. 

It was in November, 1867, that we took our departure 
from England for a tour round the world by the new way, 
in advance of its opening, across the American continent. 
Paris, however, may be considered as our starting-point. 
There are three main routes eastward from that city, — 
one by way of Marseilles, another over the Alps and 
through Italy, and the third through Bavaria, Austria, 
and down the Danube to Constantinople. Egypt may 
be reached by either of these. 

The traveller who goes by Munich and Vienna will pass 
north of the Alps, through Central Europe. The railway 
is completed to the western boundary of the Turkish 
Empire, and is under construction from Belgrade to Con- 



FROM NEW YORK TO MARSEILLES. 5 

stantinople. The work is in the hands of a Belgian 
company, and the time is not far distant when the city 
of the Sultan will be in unbroken railway communication 
with Paris. The present route is from Belgrade by steamer 
down the Danube to Eustchuk, and then by rail to Varna 
on the Black Sea, and from thence to Constantinople by 
steamer. 

The middle route, through Italy, enables the traveller 
to see the Alps, the cathedral of Milan, the picture-gal- 
leries of Florence, the ruins of ancient Eome, and to study 
the ecclesiastical government of the States of the Church, 
to visit Venice, the city of princely palaces, and to reach 
Alexandria by the Italian line of steamers, sailing from 
Brindisi. 

Having spent the winter of 1866-67 in Italy, and hav- 
ing visited Central Europe, Austria, and Hungary in the 
following summer, and wishing to see Southern France, 
we proceeded from Paris to Marseilles. 

To an American, a journey anywhere in Europe is full 
of interest. New scenes are ever coming into view. 
Eural life here presents strong contrasts to what he has 
been accustomed to see at home. In France we ride 
over wide plains which remind us of the prairie^ of the 
West, but seldom do we see a farm-house. In ancient 
times the people lived in villages for defence against 
marauding bands ; but now the peasantry congregate in 
towns that they may visit the wine-shop after their work 
for the day is over, hear the gossip of the hour, and join 
in a dance upon the green. 

The railway from Paris to Marseilles is a great thor- 
oughfare, being the most direct route, not only to that 
chief seaport of the empire, but also to Italy. The line 
passes up the south branch of the Seine, called the Yonne. 
The river winds lovingly through a wide valley, where 
the low lands are overflowed by winter freshets. Upon 



€ OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

the hillsides we see numerous flocks of sheep, tended by 
shepherd-boys and their ever- watchful dogs. The peasant- 
women are at work with their husbands in the fields, 
wielding the hoe or the spade, or carrying liquid manure 
in firkins lashed to their backs. 

Agricultural implements were far inferior to those of the 
United States. "Wooden hay-forks, ploughs scarcely im- 
proved since the days of Hugh Capet, and short, heavy 
scythes are in common use. Eeapers, mowers, cast-steel 
ploughs, and polished forks of the temper of watch- 
springs had not then made their appearance to any great 
extent in the empire ruled by Louis Napoleon. 

Soldiers are to be seen in every country town. Police- 
men abound at all the railway stations, dressed in the 
uniform of the First Empire, — cocked hat, blue coat, 
buff breeches, high-topped boots, — and armed with a 
sword. The idea forces itself upon a traveller that the 
government is very watchful of the people. 

We whirl through the ancient town of Dijon. Were 
we to stop there we should find accommodation in the 
old hotel where Dickens pictured the meeting of Carker 
and Edith, in his story of Dombey and Son. 

By this route we pass through Lyons, the great silk- 
manufacturing city of France. When we reach the far 
East we shall find men from this city at Canton, Shang- 
hae, and Yokohama purchasing raw silk, which is shipped 
by steamer to Egypt, brought from thence to Marseilles, 
to be wrought into fabrics by the weavers of this old 
province of Burgundy. Lyons is the centre of the silk 
trade, just as Boston is of the boot and shoe trade of 
the United States, though the manufacture is largely 
carried on in surrounding towns. 

■ From Lyons we pass down the valley of the Rhone, 
looking out upon the limestone rocks of the Jura range 
of mountains, occupying such an important place in the 




LYONS FROM THE PARK OF THE TETE D'OR. 



FROM NEW YORK TO MARSEILLES. 7 

geological system that one of the grand divisions is 
called the Jurassic formation. 

We behold the distant Alps, their summits gleaming 
with snow, the vine and olive adorning the hillsides, and 
villages nestled in sunny nooks. 

It is sixteen hours by fast express-train from Paris 
to Marseilles, — a city of two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand inhabitants ; with a harbor deep, capacious, large 
enough to afford shelter for thousands of vessels ; cliffs of 
white limestone, houses of the same material ; streets 
alive with people, carts, drays, donkeys ; men of all 
nations ; a clean, neat, attractive town. 

Six hundred years before the time of Christ, soon after 
the founding of Eome, the Phoenicians, coasting along the 
shore, discovered the natural advantages of this harbor, 
and established a maritime colony. From that time to 
the present it has been one of the chief ports of the 
coast. The country behind it, for nearly one hundred 
miles, is unproductive, except in the valley of the Rhone. 
Go out of the valley, and we are upon the Jura range, 
which reaches across the continent to the marshes of 
Holland. The country north of Marseilles, all along the 
coast to Mce, is nearly as forbidding as the hardest 
regions of New. Hampshire, except that the climate is 
not so rigorous. 

Yet this is the land of the orange, olive, and grape. 
The winters are not so severe as in the Northern States 
of America, but the people suffer more from cold than 
most of those who may chance to read these notes of 
travel. Wood is scarce. Coal must be brought from 
distant lands ; corn-stalks are used for fuel ; roots are 
grubbed from the mountain-sides : everything that can 
give warmth is prized. Houses are of stone, chilly 
and comfortless. From November to March the people 
shiver with cold. 



8 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Yet under the shelter of the cliffs there is a delightful 
winter climate, so agreeable that a crowd of invalids, like 
sparrows in a hedgerow, gather along the coast, some to 
spend the winter, others to tarry a few days, then move 
on to Italy. 

Vessels are packed so closely in the docks that the 
masts and spars remind us of a dense forest of spruce- 
trees among the wilds of the White Mountains after an 
autumnal fire has swept away the foliage. 

Just now the harbor is filled with ships, brigs, and 
craft of every description, loaded with wheat. France 
is short of food. Eussia, Hungary, Greece, Turkey, and 
California are sending supplies. People in France are 
slow to adopt labor-saving machines. There are no grain- 
elevators, like those of Chicago. The wheat is taken from 
the ship's hold in baskets, and emptied into lighters, the 
lighters are pushed to the shore, the grain shovelled once 
more into baskets, lifted upon the quay, and emptied 
upon canvas. We behold thousands of men, in groups 
of five or six, sifting the grain in parchment screens 
four or five feet in diameter, which hang by a single 
cord from three upright poles set as an Indian would 
place the frame of a wigwam. One man keeps the 
screen in motion, while three others shovel in the grain. 
A steam fanning-mill or an elevator would be an incom- 
prehensible novelty to these men. A soldier keeps guard 
over every group, for the wheat belongs to the govern- 
ment. There are thousands of sacks marked " Service 
Militaire," — food for eight hundred thousand men who 
do nothing but maintain the honor and dignity of France 
with muskets on their shoulders in time of peace ! Where 
is the honor ? where the dignity ? 

The Christmas holidays will not begin for two weeks, 
yet the people are preparing for the festival. Booths 
axe put up for the sale of knick-knacks. There are- 



FROM NEW YORK TO MARSEILLES. 9 

thousands of little cork cottages representing the 
scene of Bethlehem ; Josephs and Marys by the ten 
thousand, — little plaster images, painted red, yellow, 
green, and blue ; also oxen and asses, wise men and 
angels, cattle-stalls and bundles of hay. Catholicism 
educates by the eye. Images and pictures are represen- 
tations of the spiritual. The intellectual has but little 
place in the system of Borne. The Christmas toys of 
Catholic Europe, in a great degree, are the representa- 
tives of something religious. A Bethlehem cottage, Jo- 
seph, Mary, the infant Jesus, oxen and wise men, with 
angels looking down from paper clouds, make a delight- 
ful baby-house ; and children, as well as men and women, 
by the thousand are crowding the streets and admiring 
the grand show. 

Marseilles is rapidly becoming a modern city. Old 
buildings are swept away, new streets and boulevards laid 
out, — the same march of improvement here as in Paris. 
The Emperor is the prime mover. The street Imperiale, 
cut through the heart of the old town, wide, flanked 
by magnificent edifices, cost 18,000,000 francs, of which 
the Emperor pledged 7,000,000 from the Imperial treas- 
ury ; and the city, to show its gratitude and loyalty, 
erected a palace as a winter residence for his Majesty. 
There are few public buildings in the world surpassing in 
beauty the Exchange built in 1866. 

Not many cities in Europe are so neat, clean, lively, 
and attractive. It has an abundant supply of water, 
brought sixty miles from the Jura Mountains. Its 
squares are planted with shade-trees ; there are public 
gardens, walks, drives, delightful sea views, and extensive 
mountain scenery. 

New docks on an extensive scale are contemplated. 
Far-reaching views animate the merchants of this city, 
l* 



10 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

They intend to lay their hands on the East, when the 
Suez Canal is completed, and to bring the products of 
India, China, and Japan to this port. The imperial policy 
is in accord with their enterprise, and contributes to make 
Marseilles one of the most progressive cities in Europe. 



CHAPTEE II. 

ON THE MEDITERRANEAN. 

THE three great steamship companies of the East 
are the Peninsular and Oriental, the Messageries 
Imperiales, and the Austrian Lloyds. Travellers speak 
of them as the " P. and 0.," the " M. I." and the " A. L." 

The Peninsular and Oriental send a steamer every week 
from Southampton to Gibraltar and Alexandria. Women 
and children, and other passengers for India who have 
time to make the voyage, take this route. The company 
also has a weekly line from Marseilles to Alexandria. 
Business men, who have little time to spare, may leave 
London on Friday evening for Dover, cross the Chan- 
nel by fast steamer, take an express-train to Paris, and 
from there to Marseilles ; leave the latter port on Sunday 
evening, have a three days' run to Malta, and a four days' 
trip from that island to Alexandria, and reach the latter 
city in season to join their friends arriving about the 
same hour from Southampton. 

The Peninsular and Oriental steamers are crowded 
with outward-bound passengers in the fall, and with those 
homeward-bound in the spring. The company has twelve 
steamships on the Mediterranean, of from twelve hun- 
dred to two thousand tons, stanchly built, well officered 



ON THE MEDITEEEANEAN 1.1 

and manned. The operations of the company are wholly 
between England and the East, — India, China, Japan. 
Ceylon, and Australia. 

The Messageries Imperiales has steamers on the Atlan- 
tic, running to South American ports ; other lines to 
Algiers, Spain, Tunis, and all the ports eastward on the 
Mediterranean and Black Seas ; and on the Indian Ocean, 
a monthly line to Mauritius, Cochin China, China proper, 
and Japan. On the 9th and 19th of every month a 
steamer leaves Marseilles for Alexandria, touching at 
Messina, making the trip to Alexandria in six days. The 
company has a weekly coast-line touching at Nice, Genoa, 
Leghorn, Civita Vecchia, Naples, and Palermo, and another 
weekly line running to Messina, Athens, Constantinople, 
and up the Bosphorus to the Black Sea ; and a line from 
Constantinople to Smyrna and the Asiatic coast, touching 
at all the principal ports between Constantinople and Al- 
exandria. 

The Austrian Lloyds has its head-quarters at Trieste. 
It has lines of steamers touching at all ports on the Adri- 
atic, — at Ancona, Brindisi, Corfu, Athens, the island of 
Syra, Constantinople, and all the Black Sea ports. The 
steamers of this company running from Constantinople to 
Alexandria touch at Smyrna, but on their return trip go 
up the Syrian coast, touching at Jaffa, Acre, Beyrout, 
Rhodes, Smyrna, thence to Constantinople. This com- 
pany has about thirty steamers on the Mediterranean ; the 
Messageries Imperiales, forty. 

In addition to these lines there is an Italian company, 
which has steamers plying every week between Brindisi 
and Alexandria, making the passage in seventy-two hours. 
There are also Italian steamers plying between Marseilles 
and all Italian ports ; also running to Constantinople 
and Smyrna. The Greeks also have a steamer plying 
between Athens and Syra, and there is an Egyptian 



12 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD, 

line between Constantinople and Alexandria, touching at 
Syrian ports. 

All ports on the Mediterranean may be reached by these 
lines, with but little detention at any point. The great 
tide of travel sets toward Egypt in the winter, flows 
through Palestine in the spring, reaches the Bosphorus 
or the Adriatic in May, and spreads over Europe in the 
summer. It is as regular as the mackerel and shad flood 
along the Atlantic coast, or the run of herring around 
Great Britain. The hotels of Egypt are crowded in Jan- 
uary, those of Jerusalem and Beyrout in March and April, 
those of Constantinople and Athens in the early part of 
May. 

It is blowing " great guns," as the sailors say, on Sat- 
urday evening, the 14th of December, 1867, when the 
Euphrates, of the Messageries Imperiales Company, 
steams out of the port of Marseilles. It is six, P„ m., an 
hour behind starting-time, but the mails and a despatch 
agent of the French government are late, and so we wait, 
umicl a great fleet of steamers, the wind whistling and 
howling through the rigging, and the heavy swells rolling 
under our keel, as if the elements had combined to give 
us a premonition of what they will do for us when we 
once cut loose from the shore. 

The steward is in league with Boreas and Neptune. 
Instead of ringing the dinner-bell at five, the regular 
hour, he waits till the last warp is cast off, knowing that 
he will save some of Ms soup and roast-beef. A few of 
the passengers suddenly leave the table without begging 
to be excused, for it is seesawing at a tremendous rate, 
and some dexterity is required to carry a spoon to one's 
mouth. Going on deck in the evening, we find the 
sea white with foam, and heavy waves sweeping past us. 
For three days the wind has been blowing from the north- 
west. Fortunately our course is southeast, and we go 
before it gloriously. 



ON THE MEDITERRANEAN 



13 




14 OUR NEW WAY EOUND THE WORLD. 

The Euphrates is a stanch iron ship of English build, 
freighted to its utmost capacity with French goods for 
Athens and Constantinople. Upon the deck are eight 
carriages, boxed in water-proof cases, ordered by wealthy 
Turks who have been to Paris to see the Exposition. No 
longer will they ride in cars drawn by oxen. They have 
been at a snail's pace long enough ; henceforth they are to 
trot. It is a sign of the times, — one of the fruits of the 
world's fair. Western civilization is making progress on 
the banks of the Bosphorus. The head of the Mussulman 
religion broke away from all restraint when he went to 
Paris. Prayers without number were offered in St. Sophia 
for his safe return, ■ — for the preservation of his morals 
from contamination with the Franks. He has gone back 
to Stamboul with new ideas. He wants a -railroad from 
Constantinople to Widdin on the Danube, and has given 
a charter to a rich Belgian company. He has already 
built a road from Jaffa to Jerusalem, to enable the 
Franks to reach the Holy City. He is ready to give 
extra privileges to anybody who will aid in developing 
the resources of the Ottoman Empire. His subjects have 
caught some of the spirit of the West. Henceforth they 
intend to keep their coaches, to have footmen in livery, to 
drive spanking teams. Looking at all this from the stand- 
point of an orthodox Mussulman, we might stroke our 
beards and exclaim, " What is' the world coming to ? " 

The steamer on which we have taken passage belongs 
to the Marseilles and Algiers line, but has been put on 
the Constantinople route for this one trip. The cabin is 
dirty, and it is only by persistent effort that we can get 
our state-room swept. The captain is a small man with 
long black hair and twinkling eyes, who passes most of 
his time in his office on the upper deck working embroid- 
ery ! The discipline among the crew is lax : they do 
pretty much as they please. Everything is at loose ends ; 



ON THE MEDITERRANEAN. 15 

the table poor, and the waiters careless. If the other 
steamers of this line were like the Euphrates, it would be 
well for travellers to avoid them ; but usually they are 
kept in good trim, and are commanded by men who do 
not give their time to fancy needlework. We make the 
best of the disagreeable. The- man who travels only to 
grumble will do well never to leave his own fireside. 
The secret of travelling with comfort and pleasure is to 
take things as they are, make the best of everything, 
and, bike Mark Tapley, come out strong. 

It is a twenty-four hours' run across the Gulf of Lyons 
from Marseilles to the Straits of Bonafacio, between the 
islands of Corsica and Sardinia. Through the day the 
wind has been blowing a gale, and the whole northern 
coast of Sardinia is white with foam. A more rugged 
coast we never beheld, — rocks sharp as knife-blades, 
pointed as needles, jagged like saws ; against which the 
white-capped waves are dashing and thundering. While 
in the Straits, for a half-hour, we are compelled to run 
in the trough of the sea. One wave, mightier than the 
others, breaks amidship, pouring in torrents down the 
cabin stairs. The iron hull trembles from stem to 
stern, but the flood finds its way through the bulwark- 
nettings and scuppers, and we are all right again. 

Once through the Straits, we have clear sea-room all 
the way to Sicily. 

Twenty-four hours later we pass Stromboli, which rises 
high, rugged, sharp, bleak, desolate, and dismal from the 
sea, directly in the track of all vessels sailing southeast 
from Marseilles to the Straits of Messina. It would be 
very dangerous were it not that it is a natural light-house. 
We can see the red-hot lava dimly glowing on the top 
of the mountain. The island is not inhabited. It is a 
solid mass of igneous rock, which has been pushed up 
from the bottom of the sea. 



16 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

< 

It is but one of a series of vent-holes in this region of 
the globe, and it is probable that there is internal com- 
munication between this volcano and Etna, which is 
due south from it, on the southern shore of Sicily, and 
Vesuvius, which is one hundred and twenty miles north ; 
for when either is in action, the others are quiet. Vesu- 
vius just now is in eruption, while Stromboli, which 
usually is one of the most active volcanoes on the face of 
the earth, has suddenly hecome quiet. 

Beyond Stromboli we come to the locality described in 
the Odyssey, — the Scylla and Charybdis, navigated by 
Ulysses ; but it is night, and we have no opportunity of 
seeing the terrible dangers of the Straits. If there is any 
monster on the Sicilian shore waiting to seize us, we escape 
him in the darkness, and run safely into Messina at mid- 
night, take on a few tons of coal, several hundred boxes 
of oranges, and are rounding the southern point of Italy at 
sunrise. The point is a bold headland of solid limestone, 
gray and hoary, high and cloud-capped, on this December 
morning. A dozen ships and small vessels are in sight, 
some standing northward up the Adriatic, others shaping 
their course southwest toward Malta, and still others, like 
the Euphrates, with their prows pointing east toward the 
classic land of Greece. 

The air is as balmy as in April. The deep, heavy swell 
of the northern Mediterranean is left far behind, and 
though the Adriatic is usually storm-tossed, this morn- 
ing it is calm and peaceful. One Englishman and five 
Americans come on board at Messina. The English 
gentleman opens his eyes very wide, and holds up his 
hands in amazement, when informed that we are on our 
way to San Francisco eastward. " There was a time," 
he says, " when we Englishmen had the routes of travel 
pretty much all to ourselves ; but I '11 be hanged if you 
Americans have n't crowded us completely off the side- 
walk . We can't tie your shoe-strings ! " 






-M! 



t 



ON THE MEDITERRANEAN. 17 

It is a twenty-four hours' run from Messina across the 
Adriatic G-ulf to Morea, the ancient Arcadia. Going 
on deck at sunrise on the morning of the fourth day 
from Marseilles, we "behold the western coast of Greece, 
— the bay of Navarino, where the great naval fight took 
place in 1828, when the combined fleets of England, 
France, and Eussia annihilated that of Turkey. The 
result of the conflict was the independence of Greece, 
the establishment of a new kingdom. Fashion kept the 
victory in remembrance for a time by bringing out ISTava- 
rino bonnets, — as, after the Crimean campaign, we had 
Alma cloaks for ladies, and Eaglans for gentlemen. The 
style and proportions of those coverings for the head were 
so overwhelming and immense, that, were they to-day in 
existence, they would present an astonishing contrast to 
the microscopic affairs now in fashion. 

We steam past the Dorian peninsula, and enter the 
Gulf of Coran, and behold a clear, sharp outline of 
mountains, dark at the base, gray ribs of limestone run- 
ning up the sides, sharp peaks, white with snow., gleaming 
like burnished silver in the sunlight, a mellow haze, a 
blending of bright tints, a golden and pjpple glow, such 
as no painter can put on canvas. 

Gazing steadily, we can see bla/k specks on the 
sides of the mountain, — the openings to those caverns 
where the puny Spartan children, decreed not worth rear- 
ing by the barbarous rulers, were left to be devoured by 
wolves. 

Can it be that behind those mountains which rise so 
grandly from the sea, along this astern coast of Greece, 
there are quiet nooks where nymphs had their ancient 
haunts ? It is not easy to bring home to the mind the 
thought that this is the fabled land of peace and content- 
ment, and pleasures without end ; for the nymphs have 
had their day, and it is sheer nonsense to undertake to 



18 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD, 

go into ecstasies about them with a steam-engine be- 
neath our feet, and the screw of the steamer churning 
the ocean to a foam ! 

At the southern extremity of the mountain range, — 
two hundred feet above the breaking waves, — a. hermit 
has built a hut, with a cave for his parlor. He stands 
by the door, in a rusty gown, looking down upon us. 
His nearest neighbor must be miles away. It is all 
mountain behind him, — precipices with only here and 
there a speck of verdure in the clefts. It is a grand 
place for reflection on the mutations of history ; but 
man cannot live on history alone. Beans and potatoes 
are desirable, and so this philosopher ■ in a hair shirt digs 
and delves in the crevices of the rocks, and has one gar- 
den spot as large as a common dining-table. Years ago a 
band of wreckers and sea-robbers lived here, who lured 
vessels ashore by false lights — sharing their spoils with 
a priest, who absolved them from all sin, in considera- 
tion of a fifteenth part of their ill-gotten plunder ; but 
priest and pirate came to grief, and commerce now pur- 
sues its peaceful way. The poet Falconer has made 
this headland the scene of his poem entitled the " Ship- 
wreck." 

We sit upon the deck and dream ; going in imagination 
to the far-distant years, to the days of the Phoenicians, 
the first navigators coming westward with the seed-corn 
of civilization, planting it among these mountains ; Athe- 
nian fleets sweep past ; Persians come down from the 
iEgean ; Egyptians sail in from the south ; Eomans and 
Carthaginians from the west : a thousand years ' roll 
away, and blind old Dandolo of Venice coasts along these 
shores ; Pagan, Christian, Crusader, — the worshipper of 
fire from the East, men fighting for the supremacy of 
the Crescent ; Homer, admirals of ancient Greece, the 
Caesars, the Solymans ; Paul, and other apostles ; great 



ON THE MEDITERRANEAN. 19 

men without number ; navies, fleets, armies, — all have 
moved along this roadway. The keels of vessels for four 
thousand years have parted the waters off this sharp 
headland of the peninsula of Sparta. We might sit 
down on yonder jutting cliff and unroll almost the whole 
panorama of ancient and modern civilization. 

It is two o'clock in the morning ; a clear sky, the 
moon in its last quarter ; war-ships around us, a steam 
frigate bearing the Prussian flag, another the tricolor of 
France, a third the cross of St. G-eorge, the fourth the 
red, white, and green of Italy ; bells on shipboard strik- 
ing the hour ; sailors of four nations in their respective 
languages crying, " All is well " ; — such are the circum- 
stances when we descend the ladder of the steamer, enter 
a small boat, and are rowed to the custom-house of the 
Piraeus. A Greek, with an enormous black beard, is our 
ferryman. He can speak English ; will get us through 
the custom-house, hunt up a carriage, and send us to 
Athens at once. 

Trusting in good promises, we wrap our shawls around 
us, and indulge in meditation while listening to the dip 
of the oars. 

From this port sailed the fleet of Themistocles 2347 
years ago, bound for Salamis. We think of Athens de- 
serted, — the inhabitants accepting the advice of the 
great admiral to go on shipboard and achieve a victory 
behind wooden walls over the Persian fleet. Upon the 
hill west of us Xerxes sat upon his golden throne, 
wearing royal robes, with courtiers around him, and 
secretaries with tablets in their hands to record the names 
of those who distinguish themselves in the fight, that 
they may be engraved in the marble halls of Babylon. 
His mighty army was encamped on the hillside which 
we dimly discern in the pale moonlight. 

We think of Aristides on the little island down the 



20 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

harbor, of iEschylus, who was in the fight, whose heroic 
verse recounting the deeds of his countrymen will ever 
stand a monument more enduring than the Parthenon. 
We can almost see the battle, — the three hundred and 
ten ships, — the combined navies of Athens, Sparta, and 
Mgma, on the one side, and the thousand vessels of Xerxes 
on the other, — gathered from all along the coast of Asia 
Minor, from Byzantium down to old Tyre, Joppa, and 
Egypt. We behold the advance of the Athenian fleet, — 
see the dip of thousands of oars, — hear the joyous war- 
song of the rowers, — then the clash of swords, the 
rattle of spears, the shout, clamor, and uproar of bat- 
tle ; and when the sun goes down, the conflict over, we 
see the Persian fleet annihilated, the bay filled with sink- 
ing wrecks ; dead bodies floating with the tide, wounded 
men struggling in the waves. We hear the pasan of vic- 
tory rising on the evening air from the triumphant 
Athenians. There is commotion on yonder hill. The 
vast multitude is moving away, the king taking the 
lead, mortified, enraged, returning to Babylon, to the 
palace of the beautiful queen, — the Esther of the Bible, 
— - to the city where Morclecai was prime minister, — 
prime in the fullest sense of the term ! 

But our revery has a sudden termination. A fellow 
on shore in a blue jacket, brass buttons, and gold-band- 
ed cap, with a sword flashing in the moonlight, gives 
a loud halloo, and makes threatening gestures. We do 
not comprehend a syllable of his language, but under- 
stand every flash of the sword. It says : " You can't come 
to land. Stay where you are." 

It is not to be supposed that a custom-house official, 
anywhere in the world, will be influenced by a piece of 
money ! But as we have no contraband goods, and as we 
cannot see how the Greek government will gain or lose 
anything by keeping us shivering in a boat on a chilly 





"?F 









■PhR 



if 



ifej 



Sli 




THE THEATRE OF HEROD. 









ON THE MEDITERRANEAN. 21 

December morning four or five hours, we hold up a franc. 
Wonderful the effect ! The gentleman puts up his sword, 
will not even look into our carpet-bag, courteously shows 
us the way to a cafe, where we can warm ourselves. 
What magic in a piece of silver worth twenty cents ! 

By all the laws of association we ought to experience 
an ecstatic thrill, an elevation of soul, such as we can 
have nowhere else ; but the circumstances of the moment 
are not favorable for firing our enthusiasm. A dozen 
fellows are shouting the merits of the different hotels of 
Athens ; commissionnaires, who are always on the lookout 
for strangers, are ready to show us the ruins of Attica. 
Near by is a restaurant, where thirty or forty descend- 
ants of noble Greeks — a great ways descended — are 
singing the songs of Bacchus, guzzling wine, smoking 
abominable tobacco in Turkish pipes, shuffling dominos 
and cards. Some are stretched at full length on the 
tables, sound asleep, adding a chorus of snores to the 
songs ; others are talking incoherently, gesticulating 
fiercely to their boozy companions. Call with loudest 
voice for the miffhtv Past amid such associations, and 
it will not come. It is far better to get into a carriage 
and ride to a good hotel in Athens, five miles distant, 
than to endeavor to work ourselves into a fine frenzy 
by thinking of Demosthenes, Socrates, and Plato. 

Greece is filling up with refugees from Crete. There 
are twelve thousand in Athens alone, about sixty thou- 
sand in the whole country, and there are fresh arrivals 
every day. American charity has been bestowed through 
Dr. S. G. Howe of Boston ; and there are thousands of 
men, women, and children, who have been driven from 
comfortable homes, who are supported by contributions 
from America. 

But the limits of this volume will not admit of a re- 
production of the scenes witnessed here, — in huts, 



22 OUIt NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

hovels, out-buildings, nor in the schools where mis- 
sionaries, sustained by societies in the United States, are 
giving secular and religious instruction to the Cretan 
children. We cannot dwell upon the political aspects 
of the Cretan question, neither on the present condition 
or future prospects of modern Greece. 

It is our privilege while in Athens to behold the play 
of Antigone, which was written by Sophocles nearly four 
centuries before the Christian era. It is performed in 
the theatre of Herod Atticus, which has been fitted up 
for the occasion, — a tribute in honor of Queen Olga, just 
married to King G-eorge. But. our space will not admit of 
a reproduction of that scene, nor an account of our wan- 
derings amid the ruins of ancient Athens, — the Parthenon, 
the Temple of Theseus, of Jupiter Olympus, nor of our lin 
gering in the old market-place where the Apostle Paul 
held disputations with the philosophers and logicians ; 
nor of the hours spent on Mars Hill, where he stood be- 
fore the high court of Athens and made his masterly ad- 
dress upon the Christian religion ; neither of our ram- 
blings by the banks of the Ilissus, or our climbing of Pen- 
telicus, and feasting upon the honey of Hymettus. From 
the summit of Pentelicus we look down through the 
rolling clouds and catch a gliinpse of Marathon, and look 
over the mountains to Thermopylae, — names which stir 
the blood, when we think what was gained and what 
might have been lost on those turning-points of human 
destiny. 

Prom Athens our course is to Constantinople, and 
thence to Smyrna and Alexandria, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Bey- 
rout, Damascus, and again to Egypt, occupying four 
months of our time. We cannot reproduce in this 
volume the scenes witnessed in the city of the Sultan, 
and along the Bosphorus, nor the progress of the Turkish 
nation, and its future prospects ~ the street scenes of 



I) ■■ "';■'"',''. '< y .' : 1'f : <-'\ ^ : W?W'9W¥'FV$kl 




MODERN EGYPT. 23 

Stamboul ; what the missionaries are doing ; nor the 
dying out of bigotry and fanaticism, the decay of old 
and the coming in of new ideas. Nor can we linger 
at Smyrna to behold the commingling of Eastern and 
Western life ; to see the cars start for Ephesus, while 
caravans of camels are slowly entering the city, after 
their long journey from Bagdad. 

We pass abruptly by Syria and Palestine, and all that 
we saw in Western Asia of historic scenes and sacred 
places. Egypt is our starting-point for the far East. The 
direct lines of travel, whether by Marseilles, Brindisi, or 
Constantinople, all centre there, and we leave all this 
side of that point for another volume. 



CHAP TEE III 

MODERN EGYPT. 



A COAST without a mountain, a line of low sand- 
hills, a light-house, palm-trees waving their green 
plumes, are the first objects which meet the eye as we 
approach the entrance to the harbor of Alexandria ; and 
then windmills on the beach, fortifications, seaside houses 
with stone walls and flat roofs, and windows like the 
embrasures of a fort, beacons and buoys to mark the 
channel, a forest of masts, the minarets of mosques, and 
Pompey's Pillar. The steamer drops anchor in a harbor 
crowded with shipping. 

A dozen frigates, — English, French, Italian, and Turk- 
ish, — fifty steamers, and hundreds of ships, are lying in 
port: 

Alexandria, since the opening of the line of travel to 



24 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

India by the English, and the construction of the railroad 
to Suez, has become one of the great steamship ports cf the 
world. We have heard of the difficulties incident to get- 
ting on shore, from porters, dragomans, and custom-house 
officials, but meet with no trouble. An Arab, in a white 
gown, with a dozen yards or more of cloth wound round 
his head for a turban, ascends the ladder, makes a polite 
bow, offers to take us on shore for twenty francs, and 
finally reduces Ms price to three. A fellow in baggy 
breeches, at the custom-house, takes a look at the Ameri- 
can eagle on our passports, , pronounces it all right ; 
another fellow peeps into our trunk ; another runs his 
hand to the bottom of the carpet-bag, and both follow 
us to the street, calling Bakshish ! but, being of an ex- 
ceedingly virtuous turn of mind just then, and not wish- 
ing to do anything to corrupt the officials of the Pasha, 
we thank them for what they have done, enter an omni- 
bus, and go rattling up the street towards the Peninsular 
and Oriental Hotel, leaving them in the street shaking 
their fists at us. 

From childhood we have read of the Orient. The word 
implies something gorgeous, dazzling, beautiful, — bright 
colors, crimson and gold, fragrant flowers, otto of roses, 
silks, satins, cashmeres, minstrels, gazelles, palm-groves, 
bubbling fountains, — luxury, ease, comfort, — things 
delightful to the eye, the ear, and all the five senses. 
Fairy-tales of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, and 
Tom Moore's poetry, have built up, in many a' brain, a 
beautiful dreamland ; but a day on shore, one half -hour 
even, will dispel all such illusions. 

Our omnibus was built in London. Our driver is an 
Arab ; the conductor, a German linguist, able not only to 
speak his own mother tongue, but also English, French, 
Italian, Spanish, Arabic, and Greek. He sets us down at 
the hotel fronting on the grand square. In our chamber, 




WrM 





mm- 






il 






1 3 










MODERN EGYPT. 25 

instead of divans and bubbling fountains, we find chairs, 
sofa, straw-matting, iron bedsteads, clean sheets, mosquito- 
curtains, and on the dinner-table joints of beef, and turkeys, 
chickens, and John Bull sauce. But in the streets there 
is a mixture of the East and West, — the East the more 
numerous, the West the mightier. The Occident has 
invaded the Orient, and the two civilizations are so inter- 
mingled that it is impossible to say where the one begins 
or the other ends. Some of the features of the Orient 
are camels, donkeys, fleas, lice, dirt, and odors not wafted 
from " Araby the blest." 

The architecture of the business portion of the city 
is like that of Paris, — stately edifices of hewn stone, 
brought down the Mle ; but in the suburbs we find 
primitive Oriental architecture, — mud hovels, a hole in 
the roof for a chimney, another in the wall for a win- 
dow, the ground the floor. Eaising the rush matting, 
which serves for a door, we see men, women, naked chil- 
dren, dogs, goats, pigs, chickens, occupying the premises. 
The men wear camel's-hair shirts, which serve for coat, 
cloak, and nightgown all in one ; the women wear long cot- 
ton sacks, dyed with indigo, without crinoline, with veils 
covering all the face except the eyes. They have thim- 
ble-shaped ornaments of gold resting on the forehead, at- 
tached to a band encircling the head. 

We meet women on the street bearing trays, baskets, 
and water-jugs on their heads. Others carry their chil- 
dren, which sit astride the shoulder. Boys beseech us to 
ride their- donkeys ; dragomans dog our steps to show us 
round the town ; old Arabs, sitting cross-legged on the 
ground, smoke their pipes and hold out their hands for 
bakshish. The bazaars, or shops, are filled with a chat- 
tering, chaffering crowd, buying yellow slippers, red 
fezes, pipes, tobacco, cloth from Damascus looms, knick- 
knacks and jewelry from Paris, and calico from England. 
2 



26 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 




There is a mixture of races, — representatives from many 
nations. Believers in all religions are jostling each other 

through the streets of 
the city where the Pha- 
raohs had their seaside 
summer resorts, where 
Alexander, Caesar, Cleo- 
patra, Mark Antony, 
Pompey, Herodotus, and 
Euclid have walked. 

The population of Al- 
exandria is variously 
estimated, but probably 
it exceeds one hundred 
and sixty thousand, and 
is rapidly increasing. 
That portion of the city 
which is inhabited by 
Europeans is regularly 
laid out with wide 
streets ; but the native 
section is in the Oriental 
style, — narrow streets 
and mean houses. Poles 
are laid across the street 
from house to house, and rushes spread upon them to 
protect the people from the heat of the midsummer sun. 
The signs over the shop doors are in Arabic, Turkish, 
Creek, Hebrew, French, G-erman, Italian, English, and 
Eussian. They indicate the cosmopolitan character of the 
place. Material for building is excavated from the ruins 
of the ancient city, — bricks which were moulded two 
thousand years ago. The mortar adhering to the ma- 
sonry, compounded in the time of Alexander and the 
Csesars, is as tenacious and strong to-day as it was when 
they were in all their glory. 





A MODERN KEBECCA. 



MODERN EGYPT. 



27 



Cotton and wheat are the chief exports of Egypt. The 
trade is mostly in the hands of the Greeks. Their mer- 
cantile connections 
are mainly with Mar- 
seilles. 

The streets bear 
French names, the 
houses are after the 
French style of archi- 
tecture, and the lan- 
guage of France is 
heard in the shops. 
Politically, English 
influence is equal to 
that of France. The 
Pasha has made great 
concessions to both 
the English and the 
French. England 
sends her passengers 
to India, and her 
troops also, by this 
route. The railroad 
trains are loaded with 
supplies for the 
troops in Abyssinia, 
established at Suez. 




^f 



MOTHER AND CHILD. 



A hospital for her soldiers has been 
English capital has constructed the 
railways of Egypt. But France made the Suez Canal, and 
French influence is everywhere rapidly gaining ground. 

The Viceroy of Egypt was at the time of our visit 
Ismail Pasha, the son of Ibrahim Pasha, who conquered 
Syria in 1840. He was educated in France, in the school 
of the Etat Major, or Military Staff, and returned to Egypt 
in 1849, In 1853 he was accused of being a party to the 
assassination of one of his uncle's court favorites, but it 



28 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

was not proved against him. In 1855 he visited the 
French Court on diplomatic service, and on his way home 
called upon the Pope and Cardinal Antonelli. In 1861 
he was sent with an army of fourteen thousand men to 
Upper Egypt, to punish the rebellious tribes of Soudan, 
who, presuming upon the good-nature of Said Pasha, then 
Viceroy, refused to pay their taxes. They were brought 
to terms by Ismail's vigorous action. Two years later, in 
1863, he became Viceroy. 

The war in the United States was his golden opportu- 
nity. The world wanted cotton, and Egypt could afford 
to raise it at the prices then given. The Delta of the Nile 
was turned into a vast cotton-field, and for a year or two 
Egypt, which from the time of Joseph has been one of 
the world's granaries, was compelled to go to Odessa for 
wheat, while she sent her bales of cotton to Manchester, 
— filling the Pasha's purse with English sovereigns. The 
American war greatly stimulated Egyptian industry. 

Ismail Pasha has caught the spirit of modern enter- 
prise. He is anxious, not only for the completion of the 
canal, but for the construction of railroads. He is laying 
a railway along the western bank of the Nile, which will 
be completed to Thebes in 1869. Ultimately it is to be 
extended to the first cataract, to bring to the sea-coast the 
productions of the vast region beyond. The Valley of 
the Nile is the natural highway to the heart of Africa, 
by which commerce and Christian civilization are yet to 
reach Ethiopia. The work which Ismail Pasha is doing 
will be as far reaching in its results as time itself. 

Not only up the Nile, but across the Delta, he is con- 
structing railroads. A new route, more direct than that 
through Cairo, will soon be opened from Alexandria to 
Suez. Another road will be built from Alexandria east 
to Port Said, the northern terminus of the canal. The 
Delta is a network of water-ways, natural and artificial : 



MODERN EGYPT. 



29 




but water communication is too slow to suit the Viceroy ; 
he must have the locomotive. Thus far he has shown 
quite as much enterprise as any ruler in Europe. 

He had one son in Paris obtaining an education, who 
lived in princely style, spending money recklessly, keep- 
ing a dozen horses, — Arab and English thoroughbreds. 
He has fallen away from the faith of his fathers in the 
matter of wine-drinking. Mahomet forbade it, but this 
son of the Viceroy has the best of champagne and the 
choicest old Madeira in his cellars. Another son obtained 
an education in England. 



30 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

We have heard that it never rains in Egypt, but a cloud 
comes floating from the sea, which in a few minutes 
drenches the whole city. It is like the bursting of a 
water-spout. The streets might almost be navigated by 
boats. The sun is soon shining as brightly as ever, and 
not a cloud darkens the sky. Alexandria, being situated 
on the sea-shore, is particularly subject to such drench- 
ings, but farther inland showers are of rare occurrence. 
It is said, however, that the planting of trees of late years 
has increased the annual fall of rain. If the Delta was 
thickly planted, there is no doubt that showers would be 
more frequent, and the productions of the country mate- 
rially increased. 

We ride to the railway station while the rain is pour- 
ing, to take the express-train to Cairo, and find an Arab 
ticket-seller, who speaks French, with a half-dozen bag- 
gage-men around him, all jabbering in Arabic. One of 
them weighs our trunk on rude scales ; a clerk, with a 
reed for a pen, fills up a blank receipt, but demands 
bakshish before handing it over. The tracks of a spider 
scrambling over the paper would be as intelligible to 
us as his hieroglyphics, but the writing answers his pur- 
pose and ours also, — the safe transit and delivery of 
our luggage at the other end of the route. 

The rails, chairs, and sleepers of the road are all of iron, 
— there being no wood in Egypt to spare for ties. The 
cars are 'like those in use on the English railways, with 
compartments for eight persons, — close, hot, suffocating. 
Our English cousins do not appear to have any concep- 
tion of a long, roomy, well-ventilated car, nor have they 
changed their construction to adapt them to tropical 
climates, but have sent to Egypt and India the close, 
uncomfortable carriages which in the United States 
would be considered more suitable for the transportation 
of cattle than human beings. The road passes along the 



MODERN EGYPT. 31 

northern borders of the ancient Lake Mareotis, strikes 
diagonally across the Delta, crossing both the Damietta 
and Eosetta branches of the Nile. The distance to Cairo 
is one hundred and sixty -two miles. 

Filth, squalor, poverty, wretchedness, are characteris- 
tics of the Arab villages, where men, women, and chil- 
dren lounge around the doors of the mud huts, gossiping 
and examining each other's heads ! 

It is the middle of January, and clover is in bloom. 
The last year's cotton crop has been picked, and the dried 
stalks of the plant are in heaps for burning. A camel and 




IRRIGATION . 



a donkey, yoked together, drag primitive ploughs, which 
merely scratch the soil. Buffaloes, harnessed to sweeps, 
and travelling always in a circle, turn creaking wheels to 
raise water from the creeks for irrigating the wheat-fields. 
Two men, with ropes attached to a basket, giving it a 
swinging motion, scoop the water from the river to a 
higher level. Up the Nile the Pasha has steam-engines, 
which are doing the work of thousands of buffaloes. 



32 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Trains of camels, bearing immense bags stuffed with cot- 
ton, wind along narrow paths, and donkeys as well, their 
heads and bodies hid by the bales, and nothing but their 
legs visible. We pass towns swarming with people, and 
see women mixing cut straw with mud, and moulding 
bricks and drying them in the sun, — doing just what the 
children of Israel did in the days of Moses. Palm-groves 
dot the landscape, and fields of cane wave along the banks 
of creeks. Children without clothing tumble in the dirt 
at the stations, roll their eyes at us, and hold out their 
hands for bakshish. 

We cross the Eosetta branch of the Nile on a magnifi- 
cent stone bridge eight hundred and seventy feet long, 
built by Stephenson. 

Numerous boats, with triangular sails, are afloat on the 
stream or moored at the bank. In the distance we be- 
hold the pyramids ; and after riding seven hours, reach 
Cairo, the capital of Egypt, 



CHAPTEE IV, 

CAIRO. 



A HALF-DOZEN swarthy men are at the railway- 
station to receive us, — runners from the hotels, 
shouting the merits of their respective houses. We choose 
the Hotel du Nil, take an omnibus, see our baggage 
put upon a little four-wheeled truck drawn by a diminu- 
tive donkey, and away we go, in a cloud of dust, up 
a wide street, passing through the donkey and camel 
market, where large droves of those cheerful and solemn 
animals are exposed for sale. We pass beneath tall 




%. 




EGYPTIAN VILLA. 



( ■■■■:■-:• 



» 



• 






■••■"'• :\*c- ,«|j 



CAIRO. 33 

palms and wide-spreading sycamores, where a crowd of 
Arab hucksters are crying their wares ; meeting camels 
laden with stone, timber, bundles of sugar-cane, bales of 
cotton, and boxes of goods ; donkeys with bunches of 
green clover on their backs, panniers of oranges, or great 
stone water-jars, and driven by lively, bare-legged urchins ; 
stylish carriages, of Parisian manufacture, drawn by 
spirited horses, with monograms and crests on the panels ; 
fleet-footed boys running ahead and shouting, " Chemul- 
lac ! chemullac ! " — " Get out of the way ! get out of 
the way ! " 

Leaving the omnibus and following our conductor, we 
enter a passage so narrow that with outstretched arms 
we can almost touch the houses on either hand. They 
tower above us, story jutting over story. Black-eyed 
women look out from latticed windows. Dogs with 
bristling mane and savage teeth snap and snarl from 
nooks and corners in the street. They know by instinct 
that we are outlandish characters, and proper objects to 
be growled at. 

Two or three turns, and we enter a spacious garden, 
laid out with gravelled walks, and surrounded with build- 
ings. Here is the hotel, the rooms opening upon the 
garden. We are in the heart of a great city, and can 
hear the noise and confusion of the streets in the dis- 
tance, like the roar of a far-off waterfall. The shrill 
voices of the donkey-boys, shouting to their beasts, echo 
over the housetops ; but there are no distracting sounds. 
We may sit beneath the palms, lie at ease under twin- 
ing vines, breathe the fragrance of heliotropes, roses, 
verbenas, and Cape jessamines, — myriads of sparrows 
chirping around us, rooks cawing upon the roofs, and 
paroquets chattering in the trees. 

At the entrance to this paradise are the sculptured 
lids of ancient sarcophagi, brought from old Thebes, — 

2* 

v PubHc 

RECEIVED/ 

fEB281908 

Tlkrtitnutirgflifl 



34 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

wrought by hands which crumbled to dust three thou- 
sand years ago. We are never weary of looking upon the 
calm, peaceful, pleasing countenances, types of a race 
which twenty centuries ago disappeared from the world. 

The hotel is kept by a German, who spares no pains to 
make us comfortable. The attendance is excellent, the 
table bountifully supplied, and the charges moderate. 

Cairo is a city of half a million inhabitants, situated 
at the southern end of the Nile Delta, on the eastern 
bank of the stream. Those who grumble because Boston 
has crooked ways never would open their lips on the 
subject after once getting lost amid the turnings and 
windings of this city. The houses are mostly of stone, 
brought from quarries along the Nile. There is no uni- 
formity of style, but the second story usually juts over 
the first, the third over the second, the fourth over 
the third, till at the top there is but a narrow opening. 
People in the upper story might shake hands with their 
neighbors across the way. Each window has a lattice- 
work projection, like a bird-cage. The women of Egypt 
are as well endowed with curiosity as their sisters in oth- 
er lands, and the windows are thus constructed that they 
may see, upon the sly, what is going on in the streets. 

The lower story is divided into cupboards and closets, 
the largest not more than six feet square, and filled 
with goods of every description, — yellow slippers, turned 
up at the toes ; red fezes for the head ; calico of the gaudi- 
est colors ; crimson shawls, striped with blue ; green tur- 
bans for the lineal descendants of the prophet ; yellow 
satin trousers ; rich cloth for the hangings of the harems. 
In the tobacco shops are long-stemmed pipes, with am- 
ber mouth-pieces, and packages of delicately flavored 
tobacco, with otto of rose for perfuming the water in the 
nargilehs. Shoemakers, tailors, and wood-carvers sit in 
niches along the wall. Blacksmiths carry on extensive 



CAIRO. 



35 



work in small closets, making nails, rings, rivets, and 
bolts. A sooty urchin crouches in one corner, working 
the bellows, which is a wind-bag ingeniously made from 
the skin of a goat. 

In an adjoining shop is a gray-bearded old Copt, 
bending over a sheet of paper, writing a letter for a lady 
who has not yet acquired the rudiments of education. He 
is a professional letter-writer, ready to serve any customer. 




A READY WRITER. 



Upon the other side of the street a true follower of the 
prophet is saying his prayers. He sits cross-legged, rocka 
backward and forward, and, suiting word to action, rolls 
out his devotion in a sing-song tone, unsurpassed by the 
hardest shelled preacher of our Western frontier, 



36 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Taking a stroll before sunrise, we come upon a company 
of women whose profession is to bewail the dead. They 
have been abroad all night. We heard their lamentation 
in the stillness of the midnight hours, and thought it 
the howling of jackals. The company consists of about 
twenty. They are walking slowly, wearing black mantles, 
their faces veiled, only their eyes visible. One older than 
the others seems to be the chief screamer. Her voice is 
sharp, shrill, piercing, tremulous, and pitched on a high 
key. She leads off* with a screech, and the others join in 
a chorus such as can only be equalled by a menagerie of 
foxes, calves, donkeys, puppies, cats, and hyenas. After a 
prolonged outburst of grief, they laugh and chat awhile, 
and then give way to another outburst of uncontrollable 
sorrow ! 

This is no modern custom, but old as the pyramids. 
When Jacob died, Joseph and his brethren and the Egyp- 
tians wept for him seventy days, and when they went up 
to Hebron to lay him in the cave at Machpelah, they 
mourned at Atad " a very great and sore lamentation," — - 
just such mourning, doubtless, as that indulged in by the 
wailers of the present time. It is contrary to European 
ideas of grief, but the Oriental is dramatic, and so he 
mourns with loud howling. 

These hired wailers recite the virtues of the deceased, 
praising with extravagant eulogy. They praise much or 
little, howl loud or soft, make demonstration to order, as 
in Christian lands, where there is show, pomp, and pa- 
rade of empty carriages at a funeral, in proportion to the 
amount of money expended for the purpose. 

The ancient Egyptians took the lead of all other nations 
in civilization. They accomplished wonders, — reared pyr- 
amids, temples, statues, and obelisks which to-day excite 
the admiration of the world. In arts and sciences they 
were far advanced ; but not much can be said in praise of 
the inhabitants of the land at the present time. 



■-'■ - ;; ' ' .-=-"; -.^i- .t \:A:a 




AN EGYPTIAN TEMPLE. 



CAIEO. 37 

Passing from the city to the country, we see the houses 
built of bricks dried in the sun, which might be made 
comfortable if the people were more intelligent and less 
indolent. 

If the home of Miss Betsey Trotwood had been in 
Egypt, she would not have lived out half her days, 
but have died of exhaustion shouting, " Donkeys ! 
Janet, donkeys ! " Everybody rides a donkey. The sad- 
dles are high cushions, so constructed that we sit well 
back on the hips of the animal. A little Arab, with 
wonderful powers of endurance, runs behind, whacking, 
punching, and pounding the creature unmercifully, and 
screaming " H-a-r-r-r ! h-a-r-r-r ! " It is a long-drawn, 
nasal cry. We try it, but the peculiar twang not being- 
given, the donkey only pricks up his ears at the strange 
sound, without quickening his pace. 

Nearly all the city transportation is by donkeys and 
camels. The building-stone from the quarries, three miles 
south of the city, fire-wood, bundles of sugar-cane, sacks 
of cotton, wheat and other grains, are brought in by these 
animals. The completion of the railroads now under 
construction will greatly increase the facilities for trans- 
portation. 

In the fields we see men ploughing with a camel and 
a cow unequally yoked together. The yoke is a straight 
stick, ten feet long, slanting at an angle of forty-five de- 
grees from the neck of the camel to that of the cow. 
The plough is only a sharpened stick, or the hmb of a tree. 
Clover for the market is cut by handfuls with a small 
knife instead of a scythe ! Women trudge ten miles to 
Cairo with earthen jars on their heads filled with butter, 
a basket of eggs in one hand and live chickens in the 
other. They take especial care to cover their faces, but are 
indifferent in regard to exposing their persons. The main 
part of their worldly wealth is in the ornaments dang- 



38 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

ling from their ears and noses, or displayed on their 
fingers and ankles. Many of the women tattoo their 
faces and arms. The men are capable of great endur- 
ance. They will run all day at a mule's pace, without 
food or drink. During Eamazan they are not allowed 
by the Koran to take any nourishment between sunrise 
and sunset. To draw a whiff from a pipe even would 
entail the loss of paradise. 

Some minutes before the close of day, during Eamazan, 
every man fills his pipe, and waits with listening ears to 
hear the boom of the cannon upon the fortress, which is 
fired the moment the sun disappears beneath the horizon. 
Thousands of matches are lighted in an instant, and ten 
thousands of pipes are brought into use. A cloud of 
tobacco-smoke suddenly gathers over the great city. 
From sunset till sunrise men, women, and children take 
frequent pulls at their pipes, and spend the night in 
smoking and feasting, thus fortifying themselves for 
the fasting of the succeeding day. Eamazan continues 
forty days, and through this long period a true Moham- 
medan would suffer martyrdom rather than permit nour- 
ishment of any kind to pass his lips during the day. 

Though physically able to labor much, these people 
accomplish but little. AVe see old men, sitting cross-leg- 
ged in groups, smoking their pipes, telling over and over 
and over again stories of the good old times of the 
caliphs, of the adventures of the Forty Thieves, and 
other romantic tales of Arabian life. It is not an un- 
common thing to see one of the group examining his 
shirt while the story is going on, looking for population 
not put down in the census. 

These men are sharper than any Yankee at a bargain. 
The keenest Yermonter would be outwitted and fleeced by 
them. It is easier for them to lie than to tell the truth. 
If we make a bargain to pay them three shillings a day 



<■ 



Ml ■:. 




Wmmimm 




mmm 



CAIRO. 39 

and no bakshish, they will not fail to ask for a gratuity 
when we come to the settlement. They are abusive and 
cruel, especially toward the brute creation. 

Our good, kind-hearted travelling companion of the 
Boston pulpit, Dr. Webb, has his sympathies quite as 
much enlisted for the donkeys of Egypt as for the Arabs. 
Donkeys do not lie, nor cheat, nor demand bakshish : 
Arabs do all three. Donkeys do not promise much, but 
accomplish a great deal : Arabs promise a great deal, but 
accomplish little. Their moral sensibility is deadened, 
yet not wholly extinct. They have been oppressed, 
down-trodden, taxed by government, forced to labor for 
the Viceroy without pay in constructing railroads and 
dissino- canals. Little has been done for their moral or 
mental elevation. But Egypt is advancing in civilization. 
Commerce, railroads, steamships, telegraphs, the influx of 
travellers, contact with European nations, and Christianity 
will yet work a wonderful change in this old land. 

It is an unpromising missionary field; but there are 
self-denying men and women laboring in the Valley of 
the Nile, — missionaries of the Presbyterian Board, — Mr. 
and Mrs. Lansing, Mr. and Mrs. Barnet, and several others, 
whose labors are chiefly among the Copts. The Coptic 
Church is very old. Christianity early gained a foothold 
in Egypt, and through all the changes, through all the 
fanaticisms of Mussulman rule, it has had a name to live. 
It is estimated that there are about three hundred thou- 
sand Copts in Egypt. They have a patriarch and priests, 
and their form of worship is similar to that of the Greek 
Church. Their religion is almost wholly one of form. 

Twelve years ago, when Mr. Barnet came here, he 
had his servant and one Egyptian, who could not un- 
derstand the language, and two Englishmen, for a con- 
gregation. The seed has taken root. Now there are 
six more missionary stations, four native preachers and 



40 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

helpers, one hundred and forty church-members, fifteen 
schools, with six hundred pupils. The annual sale of 
Bibles and religious books is about nine thousand vol- 
umes. Last year a man of character became converted 
in one of the villages up the river, and at once devoted 
himself to preaching. Word came to Cairo that a won- 
derful change had taken place among the inhabitants of 
the place, and Mr. Lansing, upon going there, found 
twenty-five persons who gave evidence that they were 
suitable candidates for church-membership. 

Such a defection from the ancient faith aroused the 
wrath of the patriarch. Obtaining a firman from the 
Viceroy, he had several bastinadoed, others cast into 
prison, and three exiled to Soudan, — which means that 
they were to be taken to the Upper Nile, sewed up in 
sacks, and dropped overboard. The missionaries found 
out what had been done ; representations were made 
to the English Consul, who telegraphed to London, and 
back came a note from Lord Stanley to the Viceroy. 
The exiles were returned, and those in prison released. 
The persecutions have ceased, and missionary operations 
are going on as before. 

The former Viceroy, Said Pasha, was liberal, enlight- 
ened, and kind to Protestants. He gave the missionaries 
a valuable lot of land and a house in Cairo, worth at 
the time of the gift about $ 40,000 ; but the cutting of 
a new street with other improvements has quadrupled 
its value. The present Viceroy is of a far different dis- 
position, — hard, overbearing, avaricious, caring only for 
his own interest, — and no favors are expected from him. 

Three services are held at the mission chapel on the 
Sabbath, — one in Turkish, one in Arabic, and one in 
English. From sixty to eighty persons attend each ser- 
vice. The missionaries feel greatly encouraged by what 
has been done, but to an outsider the look is dark enough 



THE DELTA OF THE NILE. 41 



CHAPTEE V. 

THE DELTA OF THE NILE. 

IF you would have one of the finest views in all 
Egypt, you must see the Delta from the bluffs," said 
a gentleman who has long resided at Cairo, and who has 
been up as far as Nubia. 

Following the direction given, we thread our way 
through the narrow streets, reach the south, gate of the 
city, walk up a winding path, and stand at length upon the 
summit of the bluffs east of the Nile, and about a mile 
south of the city. Northward lies the Delta, clothed in 
greenness, — clover in bloom, young wheat just begin- 
ning to ripple in the passing breeze, groves of palms, 
fields of sugar-cane, olive-groves, and orange-orchards ; 
the Eosetta and Damietta branches of the Nile, with 
numerous creeks and canals, like threads of silver wind- 
ing through a green carpet. Thousands of boats, with 
sails spread to the favoring breeze, are afloat upon the 
gleaming waters. 

At our feet is the wonderful old city, with the minarets 
and white domes of its four hundred mosques, its narrow, 
winding streets, and tottering walls. In the northeast we 
can see the obelisk of Heliopolis, — the tall granite shaft 
which stood there thirty-six hundred years ago, as chro- 
nologists reckon time ; upon which, doubtless, Joseph 
looked with wondering eyes when he was brought a slave 
to Egypt. Heliopolis is the ancient On, and there he 
married his wife, Asenath, daughter of the prince, or 
priest, of On. 

In the southwest are the pyramids of Sakhara and Old 



42 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Memphis, and at their base is the site of that city which, 
in the time of Moses, was the capital of Egypt, the resi- 
dence of the kings, the most advanced of all the ancient 
capitals in literature, science, and art. 

Beyond the pyramids westward, as far as the eye can 
reach, lies the great desert, its white sand-hills glowing in 
the sun. It extends across Africa to the Atlantic Ocean, 
with only here and there an oasis, — a vast, unexplored 
region, of which we know but little more than we do of 
the extinct craters and lava-fields of the moon. We can 
trace the windings of the Nile far away by the glistening 
of its waters. Nothing can surpass the beauty of the 
valley, brightened by the silver stream. It is beautiful 
by the contrast of its luxuriant vegetation with the inde- 
scribable barrenness and desolation of the desert. 

Below us, at the base of the bluff, is 'the citadel, and 
near it a mosque with two tall white minarets. The 
building was erected by Mehemet Ali, the ablest and 
most enlightened of all the modern rulers of Egypt. 
Mohammedans usually are not willing that Christian feet 
should profane the sacred courts of their temples ; but the 
founder of this edifice, wise in advance of his generation, 
set the world an example of charity, by decreeing that it 
should be forever open to visitors from all nations, irre^ 
spective of their religious belief. 

Every one of the four hundred mosques has a minaret, 
from which the muezzin calls the hour of prayer. Many 
of the sacred edifices have two, some four, tall white spires, 
which lend a pleasing feature to the charming view. The 
style of architecture of Cairo is thoroughly Oriental, — 
domes, minarets, Saracenic arches, and latticed courts ; 
but the masonry is rude, and the stones roughly dressed. 
Though large sums of money are expended in repairs, the 
edifices seem to be always crumbling to pieces. 

There is not much to charm the eye inside the walls. 



THE DELTA OF THE NILE. 43 

Images, statues, and pictures are forbidden by the Koran. 
There are no altars with gorgeous surroundings, no clois- 
ters or chapels superbly furnished and adorned by art, as 
in the churches of Catholic lands. There is no pomp or 
display in the ceremonial of the service, but each wor- 
shipper kneels by himself, bows reverently toward Mecca, 
and repeats his creed, always saying, " There is no God but 
God, and Mahomet is his prophet." 

Standing by the citadel, we may unroll the scroll of 
human history, and read at a glance much of what has 
transpired in Oriental lands from the time of Genghis 
Khan, in the thirteenth century, to the present hour. 

Nodjmaddin, the Sultan of Egypt, purchased of that 
Tartar king twelve thousand Circassians which had been 
taken in war. The purchaser made them his royal troops. 
They were slaves, with nothing to clo except to fight in 
time of war, and guard their master in time of peace. 
They had Northern blood in their veins, had breathed the 
pure air of the mountains of their native land, on the 
shores of the Caspian Sea. From being slaves they in 
due time became masters, murdered the Sultan, and placed 
one of their number upon the throne in 1254. For two 
hundred and sixty-three years they ruled Egypt, and 
made their power felt throughout the East. 

The Mameluke dynasty was overthrown in 1517 by 
Selim, first Sultan of Turkey, who, though he appointed 
a Turkish pasha as governor, was compelled by force of 
circumstances to continue in office twenty-four beys as 
governors of provinces. This state of affairs lasted about 
two hundred years. The Mamelukes, as a body, main- 
tained their organization through the long period, always 
obtaining recruits from Circassia. During the latter por- 
tion of the last century their power was so consolidated 
that they dictated orders to the Turkish governors. 

In 1773, three years before the declaration of Amer- 



44 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

ican independence, the chieftains chopped off the head 
of Ali Bey, and took possession of the government. 

A few years later, in 1798, Napoleon came, and it was 
out yonder, within sight of the pyramids, when con- 
fronted by Murad Bey, that he made that soul-stirring 
address to his soldiers, — " Forty centuries look clown 
upon you ! " 

Never was there a braver cavalry charge than that 
made by the Mamelukes on those yellow sands. They 
rode round the hollow squares of the Trench, dashed 
against them like a thunderbolt, and broke through the 
lines, their sabres dripping with blood, but only to be 
repulsed by superior discipline. 

Beading the account of that conflict, we can but ad- 
mire their bravery in battle. A touching instance of the 
tenderness of one of these troopers towards his faithful 
horse is recorded. He had broken through the outer and 
inner lines, and was alone inside the square, his sabre 
crimson with gore, his horse wet with foam, and weak 
from loss of blood. Finding himself alone, the desperado 
threw his arms upon the ground, leaped from his horse, 
patted the animal's neck, kissed, him affectionately, and 
then gave himself up a prisoner. 

Mehemet Ali was A^iceroy in 1811, and the chiefs of 
the Mamelukes, while he was absent at Suez with a por- 
tion of the army, formed a conspiracy to assassinate him 
upon his return, and take the government into their 
own hands. He was informed of the plot, hastened 
to Cairo, invited the chiefs to the citadel to a feast 
given upon the occasion of his son's departure for Mecca, 
on a pilgrimage to the tomb of the prophet. The 
chiefs came in a body, the iron gate opened to admit 
them, and quickly turned upon its ponderous hinges 
as they dashed into the grand square. Mehemet 
Ali sat on the terrace upon a richly embroidered carpet,. 



f 



THE DELTA OF THE NILE. , 45 

and received them graciously. In the courts and pas- 
sages his faithful guards from the Albanian Mountains 
were stationed, ready to obey commands and carry out 
instructions. The Viceroy raised his hand, and court, 
alley, and passage blazed with musketry. Horse and 
rider rolled in the dust. All but one of the four hundred 
and fifty were shot upon the spot ; he, Emir Bey, reck- 
less of life, sprang over the parapet on horseback, fell 
with his steed down the jagged rocks, and, strange to say, 
escaped ! Others in the city and country were massa- 
cred ; and thus by one bold, bloody stroke the Mamelukes 
were exterminated. 

Cairo, like other Eastern cities, is divided by walls 
into sections, with gates, which are closed at night. The 
Copts, Jews, and Franks have their respective quarters. 
There are no street-lamps, and few persons go abroad 
after dark. All who go out in the evening must have 
a lantern, or they will be arrested by the police. 

We do not propose in this volume to give a detailed 
narrative of our visit to the pyramids ; neither to dwell 
upon the speculations and theories of learned men in 
regard to the purpose for which they were erected, — 
whether as tombs of the ancient kings, triumphal monu- 
ments commemorative of victories, or for astronomical 
observatories. But there they stand, in solemn grandeur, 
the mystery of the ages, wonderful relics of an extinct 
and bygone civilization. 

They are twelve miles from Cairo, across the Nile, but 
easily reached and ascended without danger. 

Each visitor ascending the great pyramid must pay 
fifty cents to an old Arab sheik, who has the monop- 
oly from the Pasha. The tribe of rascals who live in 
a human ant-hill near by offer their services to help 
us to the top. They meet us with sardonic grins, while 
we are upon the road, saying in tortured English, 



46 OUR NEW WAY EOUND THE WORLD. 

"Me help you, master. Me good for Yankee Doodle.' 5 
They have an idea that all Americans are Yankee 
Doodles, though we doubt whether they have any 
definite idea what the term means ; neither have we, 
for that matter. But there is one thing upon which 
they have clear convictions, — that Americans are green- 
horns, with pockets full of money. They are impor- 
tunate in their demands for bakshish. We have heard 
of their rascalities, — how they sometimes get a timid 
traveller upon the top of the pyramid, and threaten to 
leave him there unless he satisfies their demands ; how, 
even if they do not threaten, they allow one no peace, 
but beg unceasingly. Only a week before our arrival 
they fleeced a gentleman out of five dollars. Knowing 
this, we are prepared for them. 

Selecting two from the crowd to wait upon us, we make 
the following speech, which we record for the benefit of 
those who may have occasion to visit the pyramids : — 

" If you take us to the top, and bring us safely back, 
without saying bakshish, we will pay you when we 
come down ; but if you ask for money, we shall give you 
nothing. Do you understand ? " 

" Yes, master:" 

So, with their aid, we reach the top, look out upon the 
landscape at pleasure, and descend without annoyance, 
satisfying them with twenty cents apiece. 

Travellers are usually severe in their denunciations of 
the Arabs, who beg unblushingly, and cheat in petty ways 
at every opportunity, — taking an extra piaster in making 
change, selling scented water for pure otto of roses, and 
practising many other deceits ; but for swindling, fraud, 
and robbery there are no Bedouins of the desert that 
equal the hackmen and stock-jobbers of New York. 




AR//RIAN BAZAR. 



THE SUEZ CANAL. 47 



CHAPTEE VI. 

THE SUEZ CANAL. 

TEN years ago there was a man in Paris, in the full 
vigor of manhood, tall, well-proportioned, a pleasant 
gentleman, with undeveloped power beneath a calm ex- 
terior, — a diplomat in a small way, known at court, in 
the saloons, on the Bourse, and in bankers' chambers, but 
whose name had scarcely been mentioned outside of Paris, 
who became possessed of an idea, — old as the Pharaohs, 
— that of cutting a canal from the Mediterranean to the 
Eed Sea. 

He reflected seriously upon the wants of modern com- 
merce, its progress, its prospective developments. Eng- 
land had a weekly line of steamers to India. Passengers 
by thousands were crossing the Isthmus of Suez ; all 
high-priced goods went that way ; why should not heavy 
merchandise as well ? Must vessels forever go creeping 
down the African coast, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, 
ploughing their long furrows across the Indian Ocean ? He 
believed that modern enterprise and modern engineering 
would make the short cut available. He thought it over ; 
read about it, talked of it, spent sleepless nights and 
wearisome days while heating up with the enterprise. 
He laid his scheme before his friends, interested com- 
mercial men in it, talked of its glory, its value to the 
world, and especially to the French nation. 

The attention of M. Lesseps was drawn to the project 
by reading the report of M. le Pere, who was employed 
by Bonaparte to make a survey in 1798. M. Lesseps's 
father was attached to the French consulate at Cairo, 



4-8 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

through whose influence the son obtained access to Said 
Pasha, before whom he unfolded his plan in 1854. After 
months of talking and of indefatigable effort, the enter- 
prise took shape in the formation of La Compagnie Uni- 
verselle du Canal Maritime de Suez. 

The charter is to continue ninety-nine years, the man- 
aging directors to be appointed by the Egyptian govern- 
ment from the largest stockholders, and the work to be 
done wholly at the expense of the company. The Egyp- 
tian government is to receive fifteen per cent, annually, of 
the earnings ; seventy-five per cent is to go to the general 
stockholders, and ten per cent to the original founders ; 
the tariff is to be the same for ships of all nations, and 
the canal is to become the property of the Egyptian gov- 
ernment at the termination of the ninety-nine years. 
Other items in the concession provided that four fifths of 
the laborers were to be Egyptians, who should receive 
two thirds as much compensation per diem as Europeans, 
and not less than twenty thousand fellahs were to be 
furnished by the Viceroy. The government also conceded 
a large tract of land on the Delta, — the same territory 
which was given by Pharaoh to Joseph for his father 
and brethren, thirty-five hundred and seventy years ago. 

Everybody knows that the Isthmus of Suez is a narrow 
neck of land connecting Asia with Africa. Geologists 
inform us that formerly the Eed Sea united with the 
Mediterranean. An examination of the belt of land 
shows that it has widened since the commencement of 
authentic history. The Gulf of Suez, — the upper por- 
tion of the Eed Sea, — a few centuries ago, extended much 
farther inland than now. There has been a literal fulfil- 
ment of Isaiah's * prophecy in regard to the drying up of 
the tongue of the Egyptian Sea. 

This enterprise of M. Lesseps is by no means a new one, 

* Isaiah xi. 15. 



THE SUEZ CANAL. 



49 



IJ^^ p ' Mj \ pi 
F 1 - ^ ' 




50 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

for in the time of Sesostris, thirteen centuries before Christ, 
when Egypt was in its glory, the whole Delta was irrigated 
from the Nile by canals, one of which extended to the 
small lakes, which are seen in the accompanying map, and 
from them to the Gulf of Suez. 

When Pharaoh Necho was on the throne, 617 B. C, 
a canal was commenced to connect the two seas, as He- 
rodotus informs us ; but Necho stopped the undertaking, 
having been informed by the Theban oracle that the 
maritime nations of the North would be enabled to invade 
the land if the enterprise was carried out. The canal was 
finished, however, in the reign of his successors, and was 
used for centuries. It was open in the time of Alexander 
the Great, and it was also open when Cleopatra was mak- 
ing Mark Antony a slave to her beauty. The Egyptian 
galleys which escaped the defeat at Actium.were taken 
through it to the Eed Sea. That ancient canal, according 
to Pliny, was about one hundred feet wide. After the 
downfall of the Eoman power in the East it was neg- 
lected, and became filled with sand, though the line is 
still easily traced. 

When Bonaparte was in Egypt he commissioned M. le 
P£re to make a survey of the isthmus. He was looking 
out for some means of circumventing England in the far 
East. France must control the wealth of the East Indies. 
A canal would give her a short route. But the whirl of 
affairs in Europe put an end to the scheme. 

The work which M. Lesseps proposed to accomplish 
was to construct a canal which should accommodate first- 
class sea-going steamers. He must not only excavate the 
canal, but make a harbor on the Mediterranean side, — a 
herculean task ; but he had full faith that modern science 
was sufficient to accomplish it, provided he could obtain 
the funds. 

The spirit of commercial enterprise was coming up in 




RUINS AT KARNAK. 



THE SUEZ CANAL 51 

France. The Messageries Imperiales had their steamers on 
every sea, and were competing successfully with England 
in the far East. Commercial men were ready to subscribe. 
Government lent a favorable ear. Prospective power and 
glory helped the indefatigable projector. But it was an 
enterprise for the world, not for France alone. England 
was called upon, but Lombard Street had no funds for 
such a project. It was ridiculed. Lesseps was insane. 
The bankers of the Bourse were fools. What did French- 
men know of commercial enterprise ? Besides, it was for 
the glory and honor of France. England could not throw 
her money into such a ditch. So from first to last the 
scheme has been ridiculed, scouted, condemned, declared 
to be an impossibility by the English people and English 
press. We have talked with many Englishmen about it, 
and almost without exception they declare that it will be 
a stupendous failure ; it never will be carried through ; 
the sand will blow in faster than it can be scooped out ; it 
never will pay ; the company will fail ; the whole thing 
will come to grief ; another instance of French stupidity 
and want of common sense in commercial enterprise. 
Such is English opinion. 

The opposition of England has been more than pas- 
sive. The Viceroy still acknowledges allegiance to the 
Sultan ; and when the concession was laid before him 
Lord Palmerston, through the English Ambassador at 
Constantinople, brought his influence to bear, and per- 
suaded the Sultan to object to the article in regard to 
the employment of twenty thousand Egyptian laborers. 
Work had commenced, but came to a stand-still, and 
England said the canal never would be finished. 

To fully comprehend this magnificent undertaking, let 
us see the country as it was before a shovelful of earth 
had been thrown out, 

It is a little more than ninety miles from the Mediter- 



52 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

ranean to the Eed Sea, along the route most feasible for 
the project. The engineers, sailing along the Mediter- 
ranean coast, came to the Bay of Pelusium, the great 
maritime port of Egypt thirty centuries ago, whence the 
canal of the Pharaohs was excavated to the salt-water 
lakes, forty miles inland. But the harbor of Pelusium is 
filled with sand, the bay is shallow, exposed to north 
winds, and unsuited to modern commerce. Twenty miles 
west of this ancient harbor they saw a low line of sand, 
— a mere embankment, three or four hundred feet wide, 
three feet above the sea, — thrown up by the ever- 
restless waves, and behind it, reaching twenty miles in- 
land, a lagoon or lake, half salt and half fresh, connected 
with the sea by two narrow inlets, and with the Damietta 
branch of the Mle by numerous creeks. In the lake 
the average depth of water would not exceed five feet. 

Beyond it they came to a strip of marsh, five miles 
wide. Crossing that they found a few sand-hills, and 
then a shallow lake of salt water ten miles long, with 
sandy marl beneath. Eeaching the centre of the isthmus, 
they ascended the plateau of El G-uisir, four miles wide, — 
a ridge of sand, marl, and clay, heaped from twenty-five 
to one hundred feet above the mean level of the Mediter- 
ranean. Beyond this they found another small lake, then 
another sand-ridge, ■ — the plateau of Serapeum, — not so 
high as that of El G-uisir, but a succession of hills, twenty 
to seventy-five feet higher than the sea. 

Beyond this lies a basin ten miles long, deep enough 
to serve the purposes of navigation, filled with bitter 
water. In the time of Moses this undoubtedly was a part 
of the Eed Sea, — " the tongue of the Egyptian Sea," re- 
ferred to in prophecy, which was to be dried up. The 
sand-storms of the desert, through the slowly rolling cen- 
turies, have clone their work. The blinding drifts from 
the hot and parched wastes have kept creeping hi from 



THE SUEZ CANAL. 



53 



year to year, till the natural out- 
let, and the canal of the an- 
cients, of which we see vestiges 
here and there, have both been 
filled. 

Notwithstanding the oppo- 
sition of England, and the with- 
drawal of the Egyptian work- 
men, Lesseps persevered ; ob- 
tained laborers from Italy, 
France, Greece, and Wallachia ; 
and brought in a bill against 
the Pasha, who finally consent- 
ed to submit all questions which 
had arisen to the arbitration of 
Louis Napoleon. The Emper- 
or of France decided that the 
Viceroy should pay a sum 
amounting to sixteen million 
eight hundred thousand dollars 
to the company, on labor ac- 
count, and also for the surren- 
der of certain lands on the 
Delta, which had been granted 
to the company by the conces- 
sion. This was in 1864. Up 
to that time the work had 
lagged ; but, through the inde- 
fatigable energy of Lesseps, it 
never wholly ceased. He had 
called around him men of gen- 
ius, who, after repeated trials, 
invented excavating machines, 
which have accomplished the 
work more quickly and with 



4 



64 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

greater economy than it could possibly have been done by 
the forced labor put on by the Pasha. 

The line selected by Lesseps is just one hundred miles 
in length. The canal, when completed, will have the fol- 
lowing dimensions : — 

Width at top 328 feet. 

Width at bottom . . • . . 246 " 
Depth 26 " 

There are no locks nor impediments of any kind ; nor 
is there any difference of level between the two seas, ex- 
cept what may be occasioned by the tides. 

Having taken this preliminary outlook, we are prepared 
to see what has been accomplished. 

We are in the Bay of Pelusium, on one of the steamers 
of the Messageries Imperiales Company, with a sailor at 
the mast-head on the lookout for Port Said. 

No high hills greet the sight, but only a low sand-beach, 
a forest of masts, a city, and two breakwaters extending 
into the sea. The wind is fresh, and the waves are dash- 
ing furiously against the newly constructed wall, which 
extends from the beach straight out into the sea eight 
thousand one hundred and seventy-eight feet. Passing 
the end of the wall we are sheltered by it ; and though 
the breakers are thundering within a few feet of us, — so 
near that the spray falls upon our deck, — we are in 
calm water. 

It is not solid masonry, laid up with nicely fitting joints, 
but composed of blocks of stone weighing twenty-two 
tons each, which w r ere manufactured on the beach, brought 
out on lighters, and tumbled into position, They consist 
of hydraulic lime, brought from Thiel in Prance, and 
sand shovelled up on the shore, — the proportions being 
one of lime and three of sand. The composition is mois- 
tened with salt water, mixed and moulded by machinery, 





M&M 



mm&$ 









THE SUEZ CANAL. . 55 

and allowed to dry three months before being used. The 
eastern wall will be about five thousand feet in length, 
not parallel to the western, but converging toward it 
seaward, giving an area of about five hundred acres. Be- 
fore us are thousands of the huge stones manufactured 
by this process drying in the sun, as if this were a brick- 
yard, and Samson and Goliath, and their brothers the 
strong men, had been striking them off. Men are at 
work handling timber, shovelling sand, unlading mules. 
There are numerous coalers in the port, for all the coal 
used by the steam-dredges on the canal, by the tugs, and 
by the Peninsular and Oriental steamers on the Eed Sea, 
and by the transport steamers carrying supplies to the 
Abyssinian Expedition, is discharged here. 

The town contains about ten thousand inhabitants, and 
is rapidly increasing. The streets bear French names* — 
one of the main avenues being the Quay Eugenia. Arti- 
cles of European and Asiatic manufacture may be pur- 
chased in the shops. Adventurers throng the streets, — 
army contractors from England, Lively Frenchmen over 
from Paris with knick-knacks. Monsieur Vareau, who 
has had the honor to appear before his Majesty the Em- 
peror, will give a stance, in " slight of hand," as flaming 
posters inform us. 

The greater part of the inhabitants are Arabs, and they 
live in happy indolence. Many are stretched upon the 
sand, where the sun shines hottest, sound asleep, the flies 
buzzing around their nostrils like bees around a hive. 
Jugglers and gamblers are here, ready to transfer the 
earnings of the workmen on the canal to their own 
pockets. 

The harbor and canal are excavated by steam. The 
excavators are of enormous size. Imagination may pic- 
ture a machine as tall as a church-steeple, ponderous iron 
wheels twenty feet in diameter, buckets as big as hogs- 



56 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

heads, on an endless chain ; an iron conductor, two hun- 
dred and twenty feet in length, that serves to carry the 
sand over the bank of the canal, when brought up by the 
buckets. There are seventy-two of them, each costing 
from eighty to one hundred thousand dollars. They are 
worked by powerful engines, and eat their way with great 
rapidity through the desert. Those who have seen the 
dredges in use in the harbors of our great cities will 
be able to form some idea of the magnitude of these 
machines. 

Standing upon the bank of the canal, and beholding 
the chain of buckets coming out of the water, discharging 
their contents into one end of the long conductor, and a 
stream of water and sand pouring from the other ; re- 
membering that every wheel, pinion, bolt, rivet, and nut 
has been brought from France, and put up here ; that all 
the coal used for the operation of the excavators has 
been mined a thousand feet underground in England, 
and shipped to this place, — we can but admire the 
genius, energy, and perseverance of the man who be- 
gan this great enterprise, and carried it on to such a 
successful completion in October, 1869. 

Although the work was commenced seven years ago, lit- 
tle progress was made till 1865. All the first machines 
failed. There was no fresh water for the workmen, and 
a canal was dug to the Nile to obtain it, from which 
pipes were laid across the salt marshes to Port Said ; the 
place otherwise would have been uninhabitable. All the 
provisions consumed had to be transported on camels, 
and often not more than three clays' rations were on 
hand. These difficulties have been overcome. The water 
of the Mediterranean already flows half-way across the 
isthmus, while from that point barges, tug-boats, and 
small steamers pass over the fresh-water canal to the Eed 
Sea at Suez. The canal at once began to compete with 



THE SUEZ CANAL. ' 57 

the railroad from Alexandria to Suez, — contractors de- 
livering coal at the latter port four dollars and fifty 
cents cheaper than by the railroad. A mail-boat passes 
daily from port to port. The canal is three hundred 
feet wide ; but all efforts now are directed towards 
opening a channel one hundred and eighty feet in 
width. 

The quantity of earth excavated when the canal was 
finished was not far from ninety-seven million cubic 
yards. A conception of the amount may be obtained by 
thinking of a line of earth one yard high and one in 
width, reaching more than fifty-five thousand miles, or 
twice around the globe ! 

The full capacity of the dredging-machines employed 
is about two million seven hundred thousand cubic yards 
per month ; one machine has taken out one hundred and 
six thousand per month. The *cost of the machinery is 
about twelve million dollars. 
' Going southward from Port Said, we find ourselves at 
once on the shallow Lake Menzaleh, through which a 
channel has been excavated for twenty-nine miles. The 
dredging-machines are still at work widening and deepen- 
ing a space for the inner harbor. Tugs are towing barges 
loaded with mud out to sea, where it is dropped into deep 
water. 

Beyond Lake Menzaleh low sand-hills are encountered, 
which continue several miles. Across these hills, running 
from the southwest to the northeast, is the caravan road 
from Egypt to Syria. Probably no portion of the earth's 
surface has been more tramped over than this narrow 
strip of sand, between Menzaleh and the smaller body of 
water south of it, — Lake Ballah. All the armies of the 
old nations, — Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Grecians,^ 
Eomans, — armies of modern times, in the numberless 



58 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

wars which have been waged in the East, have marched 
over it. It was one of the great highways of the Old 
World. In those days the travel was from Egypt to the 
northeast, but in future it is to be from sea to sea. 

The canal passes through Lake Ballah, eight miles to 
El Guisir, the highest elevation on the line. The Arabic 
pronunciation of words is about as puzzling as the French. 
English orthographic rules are of no account in speaking 
Eastern languages. El Guisir is pronounced E~b Girsh ! 

This ridge, in some places, has an elevation of seventy 
feet, but being of sand, it is easily excavated. 

Beyond is Lake Timseh, which is seventeen feet lower 
than the Nile, and which is connected with that stream 
by a fresh-water canal, forty feet wide, nine deep, ex- 
tending to the town of Zagazig, fifty miles distant. 

This canal was excavated to bring fresh water to the 
ship-canal for the supply of the workmen during its con- 
struction, for ships after the work is accomplished, and 
to irrigate the surrounding country. Five years ago this 
whole region was a desert, but now there are fields of 
barley, young palm-groves, fruit-trees, flowers, vegetation 
springing up everywhere, — the once barren waste liter- 
ally blooming with roses. 

It is said that the extended cultivation of this delta 
already has affected the climate ; that there are heavier 
dews and more frequent showers. The opening of fresh- 
water canals and extensive irrigation will largely increase 
the area of cultivated land. Water turned upon the 
sand, if long continued, will bring forth vegetation and in 
time make a fertile soil, — so wonderful is the economy 
of nature. 

Upon the northern shore of this interior lake are the 
offices of the company, at the town of Ismalia. A line 
of railway has been opened from this port to Alexandria, 
and Ismalia has become a lame town. 



THE SUEZ CANAL. 59 

From Lake Timseli to the Bed Sea the canal passes 
through a region of bitter lakes and sand-ridges, where 
more or less dredging is required. 

M. Lesseps has given much attention to the sand-drifts 
which are ever encroaching upon the delta. No diffi- 
culty is apprehended from that source. There are only 
a few points where sand will drift into the canal, and 
these can be kept clear with the dredges. The estimate 
of the engineers is that two machines will keep the chan- 
nel free. 

Between Lake Timseh and the Eed Sea we find a 
basin, which, though dry now, evidently was once a por- 
tion of the Gulf of Suez. The depression is about seven 
miles long and five in width, with salt incrustations. The 
land between this basin and the Red Sea is quite low; 
and those who have studied the formation assure us that 
the G-ulf of Suez, at a comparatively recent period, ex- 
tended to this basin. Some biblical scholars are of the 
opinion that the water of the Red Sea filled it when the 
children of Israel fled from Egypt, and that this present 
low reach of sand, where marine shells crunch beneath our 
feet, was a wide sand-bar at the time. A north or east 
wind, blowing for any considerable length of time, com- 
bined with a low tide, would have made it completely 
bare. 

Residents along the shores of Champlain could tell us 
of the effects sometimes produced on that lake by long- 
prevailing northern winds. Shipmasters in the harbor 
of Buffalo sometimes see the water becoming shallow 
beneath the keels of their vessels, by the continuance of 
northeast storms. It was but last year that the flow 
of water over Niagara was greatly diminished by the 
northeast wind blowing for several days up Lake Erie. 

The account in Exodus of the passage of the Israelites 
through the Red Sea acquires new force when read on 



60 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

this spot. The event becomes not only possible, but 
probable. Instead of being in the domain of the miracu- 
lous, it is under natural law. The description is plain : — 

" And the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong 
east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and 
the waters were divided, and the children of Israel went 
into the midst of the sea upon dry ground." 

While the favoring wind continued, the sand-bar was 
dry ; but a sudden change of the wind to the south, and 
an incoming tide, six feet and a half high, — the height 
to which it rises now, — would quickly change the scene. 
It was on the shore of this same Gulf of Suez that Napo- 
leon, while riding along the beach at low tide, came near 
being overwhelmed by the sudden returning of the waters. 

The distance from this basin to the Eed Sea is twelve 
miles, and the whole of the sandy plain is only a foot or 
two above the sea. Even now a high tide and a strong 
southerly wind, sweeping up the gulf, between the high 
mountain walls which border its eastern and western 
shore, sometimes overflows a large portion of tins ancient 
sand-bar. 

The opening of the railway and the overland travel be- 
tween Europe and the East has already built up a town 
of twenty-five thousand inhabitants at the upper end of 
the Eed Sea. All around is desert, but the water of the 
Nile has been brought there, and the great transformation 
has commenced. We see a large railway-station, three or 
four hotels, offices of the Peninsular and Oriental Com- 
pany, one hotel owned by that company, where we sit 
down to substantial beef and pudding. The town is 
Egyptian, with narrow streets, houses built from dried 
brick and stone from the cliffs along the Eed Sea, bazaars 
like those of Cairo, a swarthy crowd of Arabs, negroes, 
Nubians, Hindoos, Italians, Spaniards, Germans, French- 
men, Englishmen, Eussians, and Turks. 



THE SUEZ CANAL. 61 

The canal company has constructed a breakwater half 
a mile long, which extends westward from the eastern 
side of the upper end of the gulf, to protect shipping from 
the strong southerly gales which sometimes "blow with 
almost the force of a hurricane. The day before our arri- 
val great damage was done to the small Egyptian craft 
in the harbor, by a gale which came on suddenly, and 
blew furiously throughout the day. 

The original capital of the Suez Canal Company was 
forty million dollars ; but it became evident some time ago 
that it would not suffice to complete the work, and bonds 
were issued of the value of sixty dollars, bearing five dol- 
lars annual interest, and payable in fifty years at one 
hundred dollars. The holders would thus receive more 
than eight per cent per annum on the investment, be- 
sides the increase of forty dollars on each share at the 
time of payment. But the French public were not confi- 
dent that the enterprise would pay, and only about six 
million dollars were taken. 

But the enterprise had proceeded so far, and was so 
dear to the Emperor, that permission was given to estab- 
lish a lottery, in which there were prizes varying from 
four hundred dollars to thirty thousand, to be drawn 
quarterly, and the total amount was to be two hundred 
thousand dollars. 

The lottery bonds were to draw three per cent, and 
there was to be no loss of subscription. But the in- 
vestment was sure to return three per cent, with a chance 
for one of the magnificent prizes. 

The French people, ever on the alert for anything 
exciting, rushed to secure the bonds, and in a few days 
the company had between fourteen and fifteen million 
dollars additional capital. The receipts from all sources 
were quite sufficient to guarantee a successful opening 
of the canal. Steamers, whether screw or side-wheel, 



62 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

will make the transit from sea to sea in twenty-four 
hours. 

M. Lesseps is sanguine in his expectation that the canal 
will become the great maritime highway of the world. 
He anticipated at the outset that three million tons of 
merchandise per annum would take this route. The time 
saved between England and India would be about twenty 
days. But to offset this, there is the tariff, which will be 
two dollars per ton, and the insurance of four per cent 
by the Bed Sea route, against two per cent by the Cape 
of Good Hope. Whether it accomplishes all that its 
projector anticipates or not, it will secure for him a 
place in history as one of the most indefatigable, ener- 
getic, and persevering of men. 

We saw him in the Hall of Industry in Paris, at the 
distribution of prizes, receive the gold medal from the 
hands of the Emperor. He alone of all the favored 
recipients was greeted with applause by the vast as- 
sembly. 

His work will remain forever a monument to his 
genius and energy in attempting to serve the interests 
of the whole human race. 



CHAPTEB VII. 

FROM EGYPT TO INDIA. 

IT was Easter Sunday, and a gala-day at Suez. There 
was firing of guns and pistols, blowing of trumpets, 
beating of drums, and jingling of donkey-bells. All 
the flags in town were displayed. Ordinarily the Chris- 
tians of the Latin Church in Eastern countries work on 
the Sabbath, but on this occasion, in commemoration of 




■ ' - . A/'/'// 



FROM EGYPT TO INDIA. 



63 



the resurrection of the Saviour, they had a jolly time. 
It was a day for feasting, dancing, and general revelry. 
On Friday and Saturday the flags were at half-mast, be- 
cause on those days Christ lay in the tomb ; but on the 
dawn of Easter Sunday they were run up to mast-head? 
to signify that he had risen. 





iiS-. ~t 



>^n.s,v 




EASTER SUNDAY. 



The resident population of Suez are mainly Arabs, and 
of course Mohammedans. Last week they had one of 
the yearly fasts commanded by the Koran. ISTo food — 
not a crumb of bread nor a drop of water, not a whiff 
of smoke even — could pass their lips between sunrise and 
sunset. The tongue might be parched, fever might rage in 



64 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

the blood, they might fall by the roadside from sheer ex- 
haustion, but nothing could be taken. Fasting with the 
Mussulman is no sham ; not a closing of the shop, in 
accordance with the proclamation of the governor, and 
then having a good dinner and attending the theatre in 
the evening. Abdallah and Yusef believe that fasting 
means salvation. They believe and obey their Bible, — 
the Koran. They are consistent. 

But evidences are not wanting to show that a change 
is taking place in the Mohammedan faith. Abdallah and 
Yusef take it into their heads to visit Paris, — that para- 
dise of the West, of which they have heard so much. 
Here they put on full flowing trousers of yellow satin, a 
pink sash of finest silk, and a green robe fringed with 
ermine. Morning, noon, and night they bow toward 
Mecca, and ask the protection of the prophet. But in 
Paris they appear in pantaloons. When noon comes 
they find no place upon the crowded boulevard where 
they can spread their carpet for prayer ; and when they 
enter the Jardin Mabille they forget all about Mecca. 
When they get back to Constantinople or Cairo they 
observe the sacred fasts with roast-turkey and cham- 
pagne, just as the governor's fast is observed in Boston. 
The world is moving in more senses than one ; but where 
is it going to ? 

Suez is one of the half-way houses of the world. 
Every Sunday the town is kept in a bustle by the ar- 
rival and departure of steamers. In the morning we 
witness a rush of English passengers from Calcutta, 
which are sent off at nine o'clock to Alexandria. At 
noon another crowd arrives by the Bombay steamer, 
which are sent off to Alexandria in the evening ; ' and 
following these, two regiments of troops on their way 
home, after ten years' service in the East, accompanied 
by wives, sweethearts, and a young regiment of infantry,, 



FROM EGYPT TO INDIA. 



65 



two hundred and eighty strong, born in India ; and 
then, just before sunset, a train with passengers outward 
bound for the Bombay steamer. 

It is hot weather, and the birds are flying north ; and 
not more surely does summer bring the swallow from the 
south back to the shores of Old England than it calls 
home flocks of her people from India. A large propor- 
tion of those returning are women and children. Many 




GOING HOME. 



of the children pale and sickly, reminding us of beans 
just peering above ground, as colorless as potato-sprouts 
in a cellar. They would be weak and puny were they 
to remain in the East, but the fresh air, roast-beef, and 
ale of England will make a wonderful transformation in 
a few months. 

Suez is an excellent place for studying national charac- 



66 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

teristics. Yankees who come to see the canal lose none 
of their curiosity, Frenchmen none of their politeness, 
Britons none of their angles. Contact with Hindoos and 
Chinese does not affect the pronunciation of Englishmen. 
They are, if anything, more intensely English than they 
were before leaving home. 

" Shall we find it very hot in India at this season of 
the year ? " we ask of a gentleman at the dinner-table. 
" Hit depends very much were you hare, and 'ow you 
do hit. Hif you 'eat your blood in Hindia, you will feel 
the 'eat. Has far has heating is concerned, don't 'ave 
hany care ; heat wat you please." 

" You will find it very 'ot, sir," says a lady ; " you will 
wish you was hin han hice-'ouse." She, perhaps, would 
be sorely puzzled to understand what we were driving 
at if we were to inform her that there were extra A's in 
her speech. 

" Nonsense ! " exclaims a gentleman, in such English 
as an American is accustomed to hear, without an extra 
h or o. " I have been in India ten years, and have never 
been troubled with the heat. I eat anything and every- 
thing, snap my fingers in the faces of the doctors, and am 
just as good as new." 

With such comforting and assuring words, we step on 
board the steam-tug, and just at sunset reach the deck 
of the steamship Baroda, of the Peninsular and Oriental 
line, bound for Bombay, under the command of Captain 
Hazlewood. Several other steamers are in the harbor, 
some belonging to the Messageries Imperiales Company, 
which is competing with the Peninsular and Oriental line 
for China trade and travel. 

On Monday morning we are ploughing a long furrow 
down the Gulf of Suez over calm waters. We behold the 
mountains of the Sinai and Horeb range eastward, and 
another range quite as lofty westward. There are ragged 



FEOM EGYPT TO INDIA. 



67 




68 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

rocks and sharp peaks ; perpendicular cliff's, without a 
sign of vegetation. There is no grass, no flower, no shrub 
or tree, nothing but the everlasting rock to cast a shadow 
in the weary land. The mountains are as bare as in the 
primeval years. In the hollows and gorges there are 
drifts of white sand, whirled up by the hot winds of the 
desert, gleaming in the blazing sun like the glaciers of 
the Alps. Over all the range there falls a purple light, 
which changes to reddish hues as the sun sinks into the 
west. . Its crimson colors, reflected in the sea, give a name 
to this arm of the Indian Ocean, reaching one thousand 
three hundred and forty miles inland. 

Mount Sinai is not visible from the steamer, a range of 
hills rising abruptly from the water hiding it from our 
view. One can hardly realize that just over those bleak 
and barren hills, — so forbidding, so incapable of support- 
ing human life, — that the children of Israel lived forty 
years ; that there the world received that short and sim- 
ple code of laws which Jesus Christ summed up in one 
sentence, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself " ; upon which hang 
not only all the law and the prophets, but all that is 
good, just, and right in all other codes. Sometimes a per- 
son is almost tempted, in these days when materialism is 
asserting its mighty powers, to doubt that wonderful his- 
tory of the past ; to say that no multitude ever marched 
down the desolate coast, amid those burning sands, with 
the mountain wall glowing like a heated furnace about 
them, lived among these mountains year after year, and 
finally reached the land of Canaan ; but as the pyramids 
in their solemn grandeur attest that Egypt four thousand 
years? ago was peopled by a mighty race, so there are in- 
disputable witnesses to the truth of the Bible history 
of the children of Israel. 

A little way up from the sea-shore are fountains sur- 



' ' ',' ' ' 'Ti ' • '■■ , .". :■},*;' 






1 < 

if X 

ft ^ 

if H 

in h 



I 



flPBfi 






: -:m ,' . W 



■■:='•■ )^:Z' uj„,.mA.ik.. ' - ,.;:■ 



FROM EGYPT TO INDIA. 69 

rounded by a patch of green. They are known as the 
wells of Moses, — the bitter water of Marah once, but 
sweet and refreshing now. It was at this season of the 
year — in April — that the Israelites marched over these 
sands, gleaming then, as now, in the hot sun, and drank 
of the fountains. It is a place where we might profitably 
sit down and muse upon the past, — trace the history of 
that wonderful people, peculiar then, peculiar now, who 
have preserved their national characteristics from that 
day to the present. The Egyptians and the Assyrians 
have disappeared ; Greece, Eome, — all the old nations, 
have passed away ; the new nations are changing, — some 
going out like a candle's flickering flame, others just 
beginning to shed their light ; but the Jews, though 
having no national organization, though scattered to every 
land and clime, are Jews still. How happens it ? 

Two days' steaming brings us opposite Mecca, which 
lies one hundred and twenty miles inland. Djiddah is 
the port, the landing-place for all pilgrims who go from 
the West to the holy shrine of the prophet. The days of 
great caravans from Egypt have passed, never to return. 
Occasionally one comes from the East or the North over 
the deserts, but by far the largest number of pilgrims land 
at Djidclah. They are brought down the Red Sea by the 
Pasha's steamers. It is the easiest and cheapest route, and 
Ismail Pasha makes a good thing of it. In January, Feb- 
ruary, and March the Russian, Austrian, and Egyptian 
steamers from Constantinople and Smyrna to Alexandria 
are loaded with pilgrims, who, if they can reach Mecca, care 
little whether they live or die, for they are sure of an en- 
trance into paradise. The number of pilgrims this year is 
said to be much smaller than in previous years. We have 
heard no reason assigned ; possibly there are hard times 
in the desert. It is not in Boston, New York, and Chi- 
cago alone that men talk of hard times, of high prices of 



70 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



living ; but we hear it at Constantinople, Cairo, Jerusalem, 
and Damascus. It costs the Bedouin more to live now 
than it did before the gold-fields of California and Aus- 
tralia were discovered, — before the slaveholders of the 
United States quadrupled the price of cotton by the 
Eebellion, and threw the whole world into a fever of 
speculation. It probably is not from any waning of faith 
in Mohammedanism that there are fewer pilgrims, but 




BOUND FOR MECCA. 



from want of means to reach Mecca. Yet there are some 
indications that infidelity is creeping into Islam. Fanati- 
cism is disappearing, other religions are tolerated, and the 
injunctions of the Koran not so implicitly obeyed as in 
former years. 

Below Mecca is Mocha, the great coffee port of Arabia. 
We pass it at night, but its minarets are visible in the 
daytime from the deck of the steamer. The coffee 



FROM EGYPT TO INDIA. 71 

is raised in the interior, in Arabia Felix, and brought 
down on camels. The flavor of the Mocha coffee is very 
mild and agreeable ; but we will not dwell upon the sub- 
ject, for painful it must be, in these days of burnt beans, 
roasted corn, chiccory, and carrots, to think of those good 
old times when everybody knew that breakfast was ready 
by the delicious aroma which exhaled from the coffee-pot 
in the kitchen. 

Probably there is no body of water in the world which 
is more dangerous to navigate than the Red Sea. In 
the northern portion the wind, almost throughout the 
year, blows from the north ; at the southern end it blows 
as uniformly from the south ; while in the middle, near 
the tropical line, it frequently does not blow at all. These 
counter breezes produce currents which set in various 
directions, occasionally strong enough to sweep steamers 
out of their course. They are irregular, sometimes scarcely 
perceptible, at others almost as powerful as the Gulf 
Stream of the Atlantic, or that other ocean river which 
flows along the coast of Japan. 

" We have to steer to a degree in this sea ; we can- 
not run by the points of the compass," says Captain 
Hazlewood, who never relaxes his vigilance, but keeps a 
sharp lookout day and night. 

Notwithstanding the care and caution exercised by the 
Peninsular and Oriental Company, several of their ves- 
sels have been wrecked. 

As yet there are but three light-houses between Suez 
and the Straits of Babel-man-deb, a distance of more than 
thirteen hundred miles. Two of them are on dangerous 
reefs, which lie almost in the path of the steamers. One 
is forty miles from the main-land. At low tide the reef 
shows itself above the water, and those who have the 
care of the light can walk a few rods upon the sand. 
The Egyptian government keeps three men stationed 



72 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

there, who, after ninety days' service, are allowed one 
month's absence, their places being supplied by others. 
Think of being cooped up in an iron box, a little larger 
than a bird-cage, set on stilts in the middle of the sea, 
the waves foaming beneath, the spray dashing against the 
trembling structure, the mercury at 87° in midwinter and 
140° in June ! 

It is well for the rest of us that men can be found who 
are willing to-be grilled and roasted in that oven. The 
dangers from currents, winds, reefs, and heat are so many 
that sailing vessels never will navigate the Eed Sea to 
any great extent, unless towed by steamers, — a matter 
to be taken into account in estimating the benefits to be 
derived from the Suez Canal. 

At the southern extremity of the sea is the island of 
Perim, situated near the Arabian coast, and commanding 
the channel. It is nearly two miles long and three fourths 
of a mile wide, with a light-house upon its highest point. 
It is a barren rock, the perfection of desolation, but impor- 
tant in a military point of view. It belonged to Turkey, 
but England took possession of it in 1857, and holds it 
by a squad of English troops, who are relieved every 
three months. 

Louis Napoleon sent a fleet round the Cape of Good 
Hope to seize this position, which commands the highway 
to India. The admiral, on his way, called at Aden, one 
hundred miles east, to pay his respects to the English. 
Of course there was a dinner, and while the champagne 
went round one of the subalterns let out the secret that 
they were going to Perim. While they tarried over the 
wine, the English commander sent a gunboat .and seized 
the place. The Frenchman in due time departed to exe- 
cute his mission, and found the British flag flying on the 
rock, and a company of soldiers in camp. No fortifica- 
tions have been erected, but England having once seized 




TEMPLE-PALACE OF RHAMSES III. 



FROM EGYPT TO INDIA. 73 

territory- is not in the habit of giving it up, and so the 
soldiers remain. 

The narrow strait connecting the Eed Sea with the 
Indian Ocean bears the Arabic name of Babel-man-deb, 
— the " Gate of Tears." Here many a pilgrim bound for 
Mecca, to make paradise sure by kissing the holy stone in 
the Kabah, has had his hopes cut short by finding a grave 
beneath the turbulent waters. 

It was across this narrow passage, according to Eawlin- 
son, that the sons of Gush journeyed east from Upper 
Egypt and Abyssinia to the Euphrates, and laid the foun- 
dation of the first Assyrian Empire, several hundred years 
before the confusion of tongues. Solomon's ship, from 
Ezion-geber, sailed through these straits, and crept along 
the coast to India ; and in the time of the Ptolemies small 
vessels, edged their way from headland to headland ; but 
from that time to the establishing of the Peninsular and 
Oriental line of steamships few sails whitened these 
waters. Now steamers pass almost daily, and it has be- 
come one of the gateways of the world. 

The great coaling station of the Indian Ocean is at 
Aden, on a peninsula which juts out from the Arabian 
coast in the form of a sickle. Hours before reach ing it we 
have rugged mountains in view, which rise from the point 
of the peninsula, and which, ages ago, were seething, bub- 
bling, thundering volcanoes. The cones are about one 
thousand feet high, and it is hardly possible to conceive 
of a place more desolate, barren, and forbidding than 
the confused heaps of lava and pumice which rise be- 
fore us. 

But the harbor is capacious and well protected by 
these mountains of cinders from the heavy sea which 
breaks on the Arabian coast during the southwest mon- 
soon. As we approach the entrance we behold fifteen 
steamers and over forty ships and barks in port, be- 



74 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

sides numerous small craft of the Arabian coast. The 
Eangoon, from Bombay ; the Nubia, from Calcutta, with 
China passengers, have just dropped anchor. The Ben- 
gal, from Bombay, with troops, is getting up steam to 
depart for Annesley Bay ; the Agamemnon, with more 
troops, is about to follow : the French steamer for Ceylon 
and China, and the steamer for Mauritius, are waiting 
mails' and passengers ; gunboats and war steamers are 
waiting orders ; tugs steam here and there with barges in 
tow ; Arab sail-boats, with prows like the snouts of lean 
swine, with high poop-decks like the vessels which we see 
in old pictures, are cutting round the harbor, manned by 
bareheaded, bare-breasted, bare-legged men, some with 
shaven crowns, others with mops of yellow hair, in tex- 
ture, fibre, curl, and kink like the wool of Southdown 
sheep, their complexion a dingy bronze, their clothing 
a strip of cloth wrapped round the loins. Besides these 
there are smaller boats, a trifle larger than chopping-trays, 
managed by boys, flourishing paddles shaped like mus- 
tard-spoons. 

They swarm around the steamer, looking up with eager 
eyes for the dropping of a piece of money overboard. 
We throw a penny into the water, and in an instant every 
boat is emptied. A family of young frogs sunning them- 
selves on the brink of their native pool, just changed 
from tadpoles to froghood, lithe and nimble, could not 
jump in more quickly. Down they go to the bottom. 
We see them groping for the prize, which when found 
is fiercely fought for. They struggle, wrestle, pull each 
other's hair, beneath the waves, then come to the surface, 
one of them clutching the treasure. They climb into 
their trays, bail out the water with their hands, and beg 
in unintelligible gibberish for another toss. 

Some of the adult natives, wearing little clothing, but 
with hair enough on their heads to stuff a hassock, come 



FROM EGYPT TO INDIA. 75 

on board with ostrich-plumes for sale. Many English 
ladies, journeying to or from India, supply themselves 
with feathers here at prices much cheaper than those 
charged by the milliners of London or Calcutta. 

The place is strongly fortified by batteries commanding 
the harbor. The English call it the Gibraltar of the 
East. Immense tanks have been made for the preserva- 
tion of rain-water, and a distilling apparatus has been 



& 





A 



NATIVES OF ADEN. 



erected. Provisions for the garrison sufficient for a three 
years' siege are stored in the fortress. Wide streets, a 
well-built quay, substantial buildings, attest the energy 
and enterprise which has worked a wonderful transfor- 
mation on this heap of cinders. Eresh provisions are 
brought in by the Arabs. Sweeping the northern hori- 
zon with a glass, we see a low plain, with mountains in 
the far distance, an Arab village, palm-trees, and otheT 



76 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

signs of verdure, so that Aden is not the dreariest place 
in the world. Being a half-way station on the great East- 
ern highway, it has become an important place, which 
England will hold so long as her flag floats over the soil 
of India. 

Steamers are almost as numerous on the Indian Ocean 
as on the Atlantic. The traffic and travel between India 
and England is so great that a large fleet is required. The 
Peninsular and Oriental Company have just made a con- 
tract with the British government for carrying the mails 
during the next twelve years. They have in all forty- 
nine steamers, distributed as follows : Twelve on the 
Mediterranean, six between Suez and Calcutta, thirteen 
between Bombay and Suez, three between Ceylon and 
Sydney, seven between China and Japan, and eight trans- 
ports. Most of these are from eighteen hundred to two 
thousand tons. They run at a lower speed than the At- 
lantic steamers, the contract time being nine and a half 
knots per hour. A higher rate requires a large consump- 
tion of coal, which is a great item where it costs fifteen 
dollars per ton. The contract stipulates for a weekly 
mail between Suez and Bombay, a fortnightly mail be- 
tween Suez, Ceylon, Hong Kong, Shanghae, and Yoko- 
hama, and a monthly mail from Ceylon to Australia. 
The Bombay and the Calcutta and China steamers all run 
to Suez, and all touch at Aden. The travel is so great in 
the spring and fall that it is not unusual for passengers 
to secure their tickets six months in advance. The offi- 
cers are courteous, and look well after the comfort and 
convenience of the passengers, — at least such is the case 
on the Baroda. Captain Hazlewood is an ^excellent com- 
mander ; keeps his ship neat and tidy, is sociable at table, 
ever ready to do anything to make the time pass pleas- 
antly to his passengers. Each steamer is provided with a 
physician, steward, stewardess, and a troop of waiters. 




ARAB FOUNTAIN. 



FROM EGYTT TO INDIA. , 77 

The crews are mainly Hindoos and Malays, who, under 
European officers, make excellent sailors. They are light 
and agile, run up the shrouds, slip down the ropes, or 
hang dangling in the air like monkeys, doing their work 
without grumbling. 

The table is spread with a bountiful supply of substan- 
tial food, yet many of the passengers find fault with the 
fare. Set forth the best, and they will want it a little bet- 
ter, or at least a little different. Accustomed to have the 
juiciest beef at home, they growl and lose their temper, and 
make themselves red with swearing because they cannot 
have it equally tender in the tropics. But they get good 
mutton-chop. There are a half-dozen pens amidships, 
filled with the long-eared sheep of the East, which take 
on fat easily, and do not lose it on shipboard in these 
hot climates. The breakfast chops are delicious, and the 
joints sweet enough for an epicure. Considering that the 
route of the steamers from Suez to China is wholly 
within the tropics, it is surprising what excellent dinners 
the steward can provide. 

Passengers must be prepared for hot weather. The 
atmosphere for about six hundred miles is steamy and 
sticky. Knives, watch-keys, watch-pinions, rivets, screws, 
and bolts in trunks or about the ship, take on a coat 
of rust. In midsummer the heat on the Eed Sea is 
fearful. The negro firemen have sometimes dropped dead 
by the furnaces, in the months of June, July, and August ; 
but no one travels then, unless compelled by military 
orders or the imperative demands of business. The pas- 
sage in the winter and spring months is delightful. Our 
trip across the Indian Ocean has been over a smooth sea, 
with a gentle breeze, sufficient to keep us comfortable, 
though the mercury is nearly up to ninety. The waves 
are smooth now ; but a month hence, in May, the south- 
west monsoon will be blowing, and then there will be 
lively times on shipboard. 



78 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

The native boats which navigate this ocean have sharp, 
thin, low bows, high and wide stern ; one tall mast for- 
ward, supporting a great square lateen-sail ; a short mast 
aft, carrying a narrow, triangular sail. Americans would 
hardly venture upon such boats for a trip from one head- 




: IIRi 





KATHER WARM. 



land to another. Yet these East-Indians, without sex- 
tant or quadrant, and with but little knowledge of the 
science of navigation, having only a rude native compass 
and log, strike boldly out to sea, and make the passage 
to Aden, a distance of nearly seventeen hundred miles. 

At this season of the year they have cloudless days and 
nights, make their way by the sun and stars, and can 
keep tolerable reckoning ; but it is a voyage that few of 
us would like to undertake, unless compelled by stern 
necessity. 

We are not without entertainment on board the steamer. 
Every night the forward deck presents a lively scene. 



FROM EGYPT TO INDIA. 



79 



The sailors are fond of dancing, and are not at all particu- 
lar about their partners. Hearing the orchestra tuning 
up, we go forward and find a red-faced Englishman, 
with distended cheeks, blowing fearful blasts on an old 
brass trumpet, a full-grown Malay scraping a violin, and 
a little Hindoo boy tooting a flageolet. Bhythm and 




: The man that hath no music 

in himself. 
Nor is not moved with concord 

of sweet sounds, 
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, 

and spoils." 



THE JOLLY MARINERS. 



melody are of no particular account, noise is everything ; 
and the crew are enjoying themselves with break-downs 
and double-shuffles. The louder the music the more vig- 
orous the action. An Irishman and a negro undertake a 
waltz, whirling round the capstan amid the enthusiastic 
cheers of the admiring crowd. 



80 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

BOMBAY. 

LOOKING northward from the deck of our steamer, 
we behold a long line of breakers tumbling over a 
rocky reef. Around us hundreds of sail-boats are bowing 
and courtesying on the waves, like partners in a quadrille ; 
before us lie a fleet of ships at anchor, slowly swinging 
with the tide ; beyond them, through the haze of the 
morning, we dimly see the confused mass of buildings 
which constitute the city of Bombay. Forming the back- 
ground are hillocks, crowned with palm-trees, on Hie north 
side of the bay ; while eastward and southward the ocean 
is bounded by hills and mountains. Such is our first view 
of India. 

Steaming into the harbor, we are met by a tug, which 
slowly works its way alongside, puffing and wheezing like 
an old man afflicted with the asthma. The mail-bags are 
taken on board, an immense pile, the weekly correspond- 
ence between England and India. The custom-house 
officers come on board, and courteously perform their duty ; 
and then the native boatmen quickly take us to the land- 
ing. There are no piers or clocks in the harbor ; steam- 
ships and sailing vessels anchor in the stream, and every- 
thing is transferred to lighters. Carriages are waiting, 
and we are whirled up a wide avenue, turning -now to the 
right, now to the left, amid scenes unlike anything in 
Constantinople, Damascus, or Cairo. 

The Byculla Hotel is said to be the best in Bombay. 
It is a building about two hundred feet long, seventy wide, 





asms 




PAGODA. BOMBAY. 



BOMBAY. 81 

and four stories high, with green lattice-work from the 
bottom to the top, as if it was a huge hennery ; but, 
alighting from our carriage, we enter a portico, and find 
a wide veranda behind the lattice. The lower story is 
one vast room. In the centre stands a long dining-table. 
At one end is the office, at the other are billiard-tables. 
On one side are sofas, chairs, and lounges, and desks upon 
which are spread the newspapers of India and England. 
In one corner is a bar, with fine-cut decanters upon the 
shelves, and a pyramid of ale-bottles, bearing the trade- 
mark of " Bass & Co." Windows and doors are wide 
open for a free circulation of air, and hundreds of spar- 
rows, seeking shelter from the blazing sun, chirp and 
chatter from the beams above us. If we wish to dine in 
private, we may sit down at one of the small tables ranged 
along the walls, and the Hindoo waiters will surround us 
with movable screens ; but it is cooler and more comfort- 
able at the public table, where the breezes, perfumed with 
jessamines, honeysuckles, and magnolias, blow in upon us 
through the open windows, and where the punka is sway- 
ing over our heads. 

The punka is a frame covered with cotton cloth, worked 
by ropes, and serves the double purpose of cooling us 
while eating and keeping the flies from the food. It is 
common in private houses, counting-rooms, and churches, 
and is a necessity in a country where for half the year 
the temperature in dining-room and bedchamber ranges 
from 85° to 110°. It would be a comfort in America 
during the summer months ; but if adopted, and if the 
good ladies were to cease rattling their palm-leaf fans in 
church, would not the congregation drop off to sleep, pro- 
vided the preacher was prosy ? The sleeping-apartments 
in the hotel are about thirty feet square, with bath-rooms 
attached. The only way in which a person can cool off 
is by bathing. Morning and evening, and sometimes at 

4 * F 



82 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

noon, the residents resort to the bath to bring the blood 
down to an endurable temperature. 

The city of Bombay is the largest in India. The cen- 
sus of 1864 gave a population of 816,000. It is built on 
a cluster of islands, connected with one another and with 
the main-land by causeways and by filling up the shallows, 
so that now it forms a long peninsula 1 . The harbor is 
on the south side, is capacious, deep, and sheltered from 
the heavy swells that roll in from the Arabian Sea dur- 
ing the monsoons. The city extends over a large area. 
The government buildings and barracks occupy the far- 
thest point of the peninsula. 

Farther up the city is the European business section. 
It is called the " Tort," from the fact that it was once 
fortified, but the walls have been pulled down, and com- 
merce now has peaceful possession. The " hub " of Bom- 
bay is " Elphinstone Circle," around which are stately 
edifices, — banks, insurance offices, and counting-houses. 
The streets are wide, macadamized, and kept in excel- 
lent order. Bombay, like Boston, has its " Back Bay." 
Going west a short distance from the Circle, we come to 
a large tract of made-land, — a trotting-park and pleas- 
ure-ground, filled in by a company which was formed 
several years ago, when there was a plethora of money, 
and everybody had the speculative fever, and men, like 
mackerel, were as ready to bite a bare hook as one well 
baited. The shares of the company were sold at fabulous 
prices. It was to be one of the best investments the 
world ever heard of. Suddenly there was a collapse, and 
the holders discovered that it was another South Sea 
bubble. But the opening of the lines of railway through 
the country has raised the value of real estate, and the 
Back Bay may yet be covered with costly buildings. 

A wide parade-ground separates the European business 
section from the Hindoo and Mohammedan quarters. 



BOMBAY. 80 

Entering the latter, we find houses of brick three or 
four stories high, with steep tiled roofs, — the lower 
stories used for shops and bazaars, the upper rooms swarm- 
ing with women and children. A dense crowd is in the 
streets, — -a large portion on foot. Many are in canvas- 
topped buggies, or shigrams, — covered four-wheeled car- 
riages, with seats for four, drawn by one horse, the body 
of the carriage hanging low between the wheels. There 
are private coaches, elegant as any seen in Boston or 
New York ; omnibuses ; carts drawn by oxen, not only 
for the conveyance of goods, but passengers also. 

Would that the farmers of New England could see how 
the Hindoos manage their oxen. Think of a pair of lean, 
lank, humpbacked kine, with enormous horns sticking 
straight up into the air ; a straight piece of round wood 






_-*•' 



AT FULL SPEED. 



84 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

six inches in diameter for a yoke ; four pins, each about 
ten inches long, driven into it to keep it in place ; ropes 
instead of bows, not lashed to the horns, but tied round 
the necks ; a cord in the nose of each ox, with reins 
attached ; a two-wheeled cart with four seats, the driver 
sitting in front bareheaded, bare- armed, bare-footed, bare- 
legged, hardy dressed in every respect, — his only raiment 
being a cloth about the loins ; several Hindoo passengers, 
with no more clothing than himself ; the oxen upon a trot 
or canter, the dusky Jehu handling the reins adroitly, 
turning sharp corners, picking his - way through the crowd 
as easily and quickly as the hackmen of New York can 
thread their course through Broadway. 

Proceeding farther inland, we reach the suburbs, where 
the Europeans, Parsees, and rich native merchants reside, 
and find broad avenues, as smooth as a sea-beach, shaded 
by tropical trees in great variety. We pass stately palaces 
surrounded by spacious gardens ; look up the long grav- 
elled walks, and behold flowers of every hue, — exotics of 
the temperate zone mingled with the luxuriant vegetation 
of the tropics, — oleanders, magnolias, laburnums, acacias, 
oranges, lemons, honeysuckle, verbenas, roses, azalias, pe- 
tunias, tiger-lilies, — the entire flora of our green-houses 
blooming in the open air ; vines and creepers, clematis 
and jessamine climbing the walls, and overrunning arbors ; 
trees wholly unlike those we are accustomed to see ; no 
elms, no maples or giant oaks, but the tall and slender 
palm, the palmyra and cocoanut, with their green plumes 
waving in the breeze ; the India-rubber-tree, the teak, 
the fig, and mango ; the banyan, a grove in itself, sending 
new trunks from its limbs down into the generous earth, 
and spreading its branches far and wide, thickly throwing 
out its leaves and making a delightful shade. 

The Parsee does his best to make his earthly home a 
paradise. His palace is large and lofty, with wide veran- 



BOMBAY. 85 

das and passage-ways running in all directions, so that, 
let the breeze come from the sea or the mountains, from 
the north or the south, it may sweep through his halls. 

The Parsees are the Yankees of the East, — the busi- 
ness men who have the knack of making money. They 
surpass the English in the elegance of their residences. 
Beyond the palaces and villas we come to the plains, 
extending northward and eastward, bounded in the dim 
distance by mountains. 

In approaching the city from the sea, or looking down 
upon it from the hotel, we see a long reach of tiled roofs, 
wide streets, open lots, patches of green foliage, with but 
few objects to attract special attention. 

Taking a walk before the sun is up, we behold queer 
scenes in the streets. The people are just rising, some 
from bamboo cots, but hundreds of them from the ground 
in front of their shops and houses, where they have slept 
through the night. Turning a corner suddenly, we fall 
headlong over a young man, who springs to his feet, 
angry at being thus unceremoniously disturbed ; but an 
apology, given in pantomime, restores his good nature, 
and we laugh together over the incident. 

The Hindoo religion has one excellent feature, in that 
it requires cleanliness. The climate also demands it ; and 
not only in the morning, but several times during the 
day, the natives cool their blood and keep the pores of 
the body open by ablutions. It is an entertaining spec- 
tacle to look down the street and see the general washing 
up. One man pours water by the bucketful over his 
neighbor, while another friend rubs and scrubs with 
brush or broom, each in turn taking a douche. Mothers 
are washing their babies in large earthen jars, as if en- 
gaged in putting down pickled lobsters or desiccated 
meats, the little imps squirming and kicking up their 
heels in A r ain remonstrance. 



S6 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 




WASHING UP. 



The children, like those in many American homes, are 
up bright and early, making mud-pies. They are not 
dressed quite well enough to make their appearance at an 
American Sunday school. In a country where the father 
and mother make a small piece of cloth serve for full 
dress, it is not in the nature of things that their offspring 
should appear in coat, vest, and pants, or with crinoline 
and trails like those with which some ladies sweep the 
streets of American cities. The attire of the maidens 
of the West — - especially the ball-room dresses — have 
longer skirts, and are perhaps not quite so low in the 
neck, as the costumes worn by their sisters in India ; but 
in the display of jewelry, the dark-featured ladies of this 
country can outshine them all. 

Take a look at this black-haired mother, who has 
decked herself with a heavy necklace of gold chains and 
English sovereigns, silver armlets above each elbow, ten 



BOMBAY. 



87 



bracelets upon her wrists, so many rings upon her fingers 
that we cannot count them, twelve rings with little tink- 
ling silver bells dangling from her ears, rings on her toes, 
and a jewel in the nose ! 




JEWELS AND ORNAMENTS. 



Notice, too, how lavishly she has adorned the darling in 
her arms, — body, thighs, legs, ankles, toes, fingers, wrists, 
arms, neck, ears, and nose ornamented with rings, chains, 
charms, jewels, bracelets, and bangles ! Quite a display 
for a girl who has not yet celebrated her first birthday 
anniversary ! 

The question is solved as to what becomes of the sil- 
ver. India absorbs it. A love for ornaments is charac- 



88 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD, 

teristic of men as well as of women in India, many of 
them wearing bracelets and nose-rings. 

The population of the country is nearly one hundred 
and eighty millions, and it may be said that each indi- 
vidual has upon an average four or five rings, bracelets, 
or charms, usually of silver. Doubtless there are at least 
ten hundred million ornaments worn by the natives, but 
no estimate can be made of their value. Through all 
ages India has swallowed up silver, and the absorption is 
as great to-day as ever. The coin of the country is 
mostly silver. The native does not like a gold currency. 
Attempts have been made to introduce it, but without 
success. 

As the crowd thickens, we . see turbans of all sizes, 
shapes, and colors. A native kindly permits us to ex- 
amine his head-gear, which is composed of a strip of 
cloth one hundred and fifty yards in length. It is of 
scarlet, and curiously and wonderfully made, plaited in 
the centre for the crown of the head, and wound round 
and round, fold upon fold, making a truck three inches 
thick and two feet in diameter ! The numerous red, yellow, 
blue, white, green, and purple turbans in motion remind 
us of a bed of variegated poppies, moved by a passing 
breeze. Conspicuous in the crowd are the native police- 
men, in blue coats and pants, wearing yellow turbans 
shaped like toadstools ; they walk with dignified step, 
conscious of their authority, carrying a cat-o'-nine-tails. 

We notice a crimson spot upon a wall surrounding a 
garden, as if some one had there upset a pot of paint ; 
but a friend informs us that there is a god somewhere in 
the wall, and that the paint has been smeared there as an 
offering to the deity. 

Turning the corner of a street, we come upon a toddy- 
seller, who has a sign in English, " Licensed to keep and 
sell toddy " ; and an English sailor, in a blue jacket and 



BOMBAY. 



89 



straw hat, is drinking himself gloriously drunk. The 
liquor- vender has a small temple and god all to himself, 
— a box about the size of a little girl's doll-house, — set 




TODDY AND DEVOTION. 



off with tinsel and silver paper. He kneels and beats a 
rat-a-tat-tat upon a drum, bows before the image, jumps 
up with a laugh, and is ready to serve any thirsty customer. 

He takes his pay in a currency such as we have not 
heretofore seen, — rupees, annas, and pice. A rupee is 
about equal to fifty cents, American coinage. One anna is 
equal to three cents ; it is a copper coin, and sixteen 
make a rupee. It takes twelve pice to make one anna. 
In the interior, cowries or sea-shells are used by the 
natives for currency. Bank-notes are issued by the In- 
dian government, which circulate at par in the presi- 
dencies where they are issued ; but the notes of Bombay 
are at a discount in Bengal, while those of that presi- 
dency are below par in Bombay. 

On one of the islands which dot the harbor are the 
celebrated caves of Elephanta, excavated from the solid 



90 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

rock. Not only here, but in many places throughout 
Western India, similar temples are found. It is supposed 
that they were cut by the Buddhists, when that religion 
was in the ascendant. No temples erected by the Bud- 
dhists are now in existence ; they have been destroyed, or 
have crumbled during the centuries which have passed 
since the sect has died out in India. But those of Ele- 
phanta are excavated in the volcanic rock, and can only 
perish when the rock itself shall fall. The temples are 
entered by magnificent doorways, cut in the face of the 
precipice. The approach is by a series of broad stone 
steps. Two rudely sculptured lions guard the entrance- 
way, like those which showed their teeth at the Christian 
pilgrims who approached the palace Beautiful, as set 
forth in Bunyan's allegory. There are halls, passages, 
courts, some admitting the sun, others dark and gloomy 
till lighted by torches. In the largest hall are colossal 
images, twenty feet high, representing Brahma the crea- 
tor, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer. In 
the dark recesses are minor deities. Here, in ancient 
times, multitudes of worshippers came, but now the halls 
are deserted, and the immense excavation only remains as 
a silent witness of the civilization and religion of the by- 
gone centuries. 

The population of Bombay, as we see from the crowd 
in the streets, is very dense. According to the census of 
1864, it is divided as follows : — 

Hindoos ..... 585,968 

Mohammedans .... 145,880 

Parsees . . . . . . '. 49,201 

Europeans ..... 8,415 

Jews ...... 2,872 

Other races . . . • . . 24,226 

Total ..... 816,562 



BOMBAY. 91 

The census gave about twenty-one persons to each 
house throughout the city. The natives have few com- 
forts. They herd together like sheep, each one lying 
down upon the floor, without mattress or comforter. A 
blanket is all the covering needed during the coldest 
winter nights. 

The Parsees and Europeans transact nearly all the mer- 
cantile business, although numerically they constitute but 
a small portion of the community. Before the commercial 
disasters of 1865-66, the Parsees were the great bankers 
of the East, with unlimited credit at London. They 
gained their high standing by enterprise and integrity. 
They have no caste prejudices, and so are able to mingle 
freely with all classes, which the Hindoos cannot do. 
They are courteous and refined, and their culture and 
breeding admits them freely to the drawing-rooms of 
Europeans, not only at Bombay, but in London. 

They are the last of an ancient race, and followers in 
an old religion. Their ancestors came from Persia, prob- 
ably at the time India was conquered by Darius Hystapes. 
512 B. C, — that monarch whose kingdom is spoken of in 
the Book of Esther as extending from India to Ethiopia. 
Zoroaster, the founder of the sect, was a fire-worshipper. 
We may think of him as contemporaneous with the 
Prophets Ezra and Malachi, and as promulgating his 
doctrines about the time that Cincinnatus was called to 
leave his plough and undertake the dictatorship at Eome. 

The Parsees are without a country now. They are not 
native to the soil, and have nothing in common with the 
Hindoos. They have not suffered persecution as have the 
Jews, but, like them, they are wanderers upon the earth, 
and exceedingly sharp at a bargain. Besides being wor- 
shippers of fire, they are different from all other people in 
regard to their disposition of the dead. 

Going out of the city a little distance, and ascending 



92 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

the gentle slope leading by a winding way to Malabar 
Hill, we come to three Martello towers, forty or fifty feet 
high, and thirty or more in diameter, built of stone. At 
first sight we might take them to be fortifications, erected 
to protect the city from invasion on its landward side. 
But there are no embrasures for cannon or loop-holes for 
musketry. They are " towers of silence," where the 
Parsees lay their dead. The bodies are exposed upon 
inclined shelves, and when the flesh is consumed the 
bones drop into the circular area of the interiors. Flocks 
of crows and vultures circle in the air, or cluster in the 
surrounding tree-tops, obtaining their daily food from 
these houses of death.' 

It is sickening to think of it ; not that there can be any 
difference to the departed spirit, whether its cast-off tene- 
ment moulders slowly to dust or is devoured by vultures ; 
whether burned by fire or blown to the winds ; but the 
earth is our mother, and it is sweeter to lie on her bosom 
amid blooming flowers or beneath bending elms and sigh- 
ing pines, in G-od's acre. 

" God's acre ! yes, that blessed word imparts • 
Comfort to those who in the grave have sown 
The seed that they had garnered in their hearts, — 
Their bread of life, — alas ! no more their own," 



BRITISH INDIA. 93 



CHAPTER IX. 



BRITISH INDIA. 



EVERY American knows that John Bull has a large 
farm in the far East, but the extent of the domain 
can only be comprehended by studying its boundaries. 
Its most northern point is the lofty mountain range, the 
largest in the world, which lifts its snowy peaks above 
the Vale of Cashmere. Two thousand miles away is 
Cape Comorin, the southern extremity. The greatest 
width is about sixteen hundred miles. 

The Indian Ocean laves fifteen hundred miles of the 
western, the Bay of Bengal twelve hundred of its eastern 
border. India is as large as all the States lying east of 
the Mississippi ! The distance from New Brunswick to 
Texas hardly equals its length, or from Boston to Omaha 
its greatest width. 

Of mountains, besides the Himalayas, there is a range 
lying on the western coast, a few miles from the sea, 
as the Andes and the Sierra Nevada ranges lie along the 
western border of America. 

South of Bombay is the Malabar coast, which old sea- 
captains avoid during the monsoon. One hundred and 
fifty miles north of Bombay is the Gulf of Cambay, and 
two hundred miles farther the G-ulf of Cutch. 

The rivers Indore and Toptee, which empty into the 
Gulf of Cambay, are as large as the Connecticut. North- 
ward of these is the Indus, which has its source in 
Thibet, in regions not yet fully explored by Europeans. 
The sacred Ganges, fed by the snows of the Himalayas, 



94 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

gives fertility to a valley which, for thirty-five hundred 
years, has teemed with human life. 

The Kristna and G-odavery, taking their rise amid the 
mountains of the western coast, pour their floods into the 
Bay of Bengal, nearly one thousand miles from their 
source. 

In this vast domain there is every variety of surface, — 
•plains, hills, deep ravines, verdant meadows, fields, forests, 
clothed with tropical vegetation ; inaccessible mountains, 
sandy deserts, and barren wastes. 

In these dominions England holds sway over one hun- 
dred and eighty millions of people, according to the latest 
census. In the Bengal Presidency the population is three 
hundred and eleven to the square mile ; in the northwest 
provinces, four hundred and thirty-eight, — exceeding 
Belgium, the most densely populated country of Europe, 
which has four hundred to the square mile. Oude, with 
an area nearly equal to Pennsylvania, has eight millions. 

There are few great cities, Bombay being the largest, 
with 800,000 ; Madras, 720,000 : Calcutta, 500,000 ; Luck- 
now, 300,000 ; Benares, 173,000 ; Agra, 142,000 ; but the 
inhabitants are mainly in small villages. They speak 
various languages, — 40,000,000 talking the Hindi ; 
30,000,000, the Hindustani; 10,000,000, the Mahratti; 
12,000,000, the Tamil ; 14,000,000, the Telegu ; and 
30,000,000, the Bengali. The Tamil and Mahratti are 
languages of the South ; Bengali, the language of the 
East; the Hindi, of the Central Provinces; and the 
Hindustani, the language of Lucknow and Delhi, and 
the upper valley of the Ganges. Some of these have 
several dialects, so diverse that the natives of one 
province cannot converse with those of another. 

The whole country is under a Governor-General, or 
Viceroy, who is appointed and removed at pleasure by the 
Queen of England. It has four great political divisions 





A PRINCELY EQUIPAGE. 



96 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Mogul power was broken, and the empire was divided 
into provinces, each having its rajah. Caste, and the 
strong hands of the Mohammedan rulers, had degraded 
and demoralized the people. There was no nationality, 
no bond of union, and therefore no patriotism. All cir- 
cumstances were favorable for the advancement of the 
power of the company. 

The East India Company was a close corporation, 
despotic, powerful, with England for a backer ; but the 
company is no more, the Queen is sovereign, and Parlia- 
ment the supreme authority. But there must be a great 
change in the manner of making and administering law 
from the present system, before England will reap the 
full benefit of her East India possessions. 

The government now is lodged in the person of the 
Governor-General and his counsellors. Neither natives 
nor English residents have any voice in making or admin- 
istering the laws. It is still a close corporation, slow, 
behind the times, the members impressed with a sense 
of their importance and dignity. Taxes are imposed 
tariffs made and unmade, laws promulgated, without 
much attention being paid to the wishes or wants of the 
natives. 

How would the people of the United States relish it if 
the President were to remove the whole of the executive 
machinery of government, on the 1st of May, to some 
healthy locality among the Alleghanies, — secretaries, 
heads of departments, clerks, printer, and all, — staying- 
there till October to enjoy the mountain breezes, at a cost 
to the country of more than a million dollars ? Yet Sir 
John Lawrence, the Governor-General of India, has gone 
to Imla, more than one thousand miles distant, with all 
the government officials. 

The Governor-General has a salary of $ 10,400 a month, 
nearly $ 125,000 per annum, — five times that of the 



BRITISH INDIA. 97 

President of the United States, — besides $ 50,000 for 
entertainment of guests, and also an allowance for ser- 
vants. His six councillors have each $ 40,000 per annum. 
The Lieutenant-Governor has $ 50,000. There are several 
secretaries which have each $ 24,000. 

Then come the Governors of the Presidencies and Prov- 
inces, — Bengal, Madras, Bombay, the Punjab, and North- 
west Provinces, — each of which receive $ 50,000 per 
annum. The Governor of the Central Provinces, Oude 
and Burrnah, each receive $ 25,000. All of these men 
belong to the Tite Barnacle family, and subordinate places 
are, in a great measure, filled with their nephews and 
cousins. The sum of nine hundred thousand dollars is 
paid to twenty-one individuals in salaries. 

For educational purposes, for the enlightenment and 
elevation of one hundred and eighty millions, the amount 
paid is $ 3,370,000, and this is set down as an unwar- 
ranted expenditure by some of the officials. 

The total receipts of the government are nearly two hun- 
dred and twenty million dollars, and the expenses about 
the same. The English Church in India is maintained at 
an expense of $ 700,000 per annum. 

By far the most important article yielding revenue is 
opium. It is a government monopoly. The poppies from 
which the opium is manufactured are grown in the valley 
of the Ganges, near Patna and Dinapore. There is a sale 
of the drug at Calcutta on the ninth of every month, 
where there is an excitement equal to that of the New 
York exchange when gold is on a rise. The trade is 
mainly in the hands of native merchants, who rush into 
opium speculation recklessly. Everything about the drug- 
seems to be intoxicating. The sale last year yielded 
a clear revenue of thirty-five million dollars to the gov- 
ernment, and the Minister of Finance, Mr. Massey, with 
great glee, announces in his budget for 1869, that the 

G 



98 OUB NEW WAY SOUND THE WOELD. 

sales will yield a profit of forty-one million seven hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars ! 

Before long the treaty between England and China is 
to be revised, and the opium question consequently is 
under discussion. The Chinese government and some 
Europeans in that country are opposed to a continuance 
of its sale. On the other hand, one of the leading opium 
firms in China has addressed a memorial to the Gover- 
nor of Hong Kong, setting forth the benefits arising from 
the use of the drug. It declares : " Opium-eating is not 
a curse, but a comfort and benefit to the hard-working 
Chinese. As well say that malt is a curse to the Eng- 
lish laborers, or tobacco to the world at large. Misuse is 
one thing, use another. If to a few the opium-pipe has 
proved a snare, to many scores of thousands it has been 
productive of healthful sustenation and enjoyment." 

This has been answered by those who have had an 
opportunity of witnessing its effects. They present a re- 
volting picture of degraded, restless, weeping, slobbering 
skeleton figures, tormented by terrible visions. 

The India Daily News, in an article upon the question, 
says that the consumption is increasing not only in 
China, but in England; and its use will become more 
general when it is maintained that it is beneficial to 
health, and to be ranked with beer and tobacco. 

The Chinese government is still opposed to the trade, 
but powerless to prevent it. It is destroying the people, 
takes away forty million dollars per annum, giving in 
return poverty, degradation, and death. But having the 
monopoly, the British government will not relinquish 
such a princely revenue on moral considerations just yet. 



THE RAILWAYS OF LNDIA. 99 

CHAPTEE X. 

THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA. 

UP to 1853 locomotion through India was attended 
with great difficulties. The Ganges and the Indus 
are the only navigable rivers, and these during the dry 
season can only be ascended by small sail and row boats. 
The government had opened here and there a highway 
connecting interior military stations with Bombay, Cal- 
cutta, and Madras ; but the empire, containing one million 
four hundred thousand square miles, had few carriage- 
roads. Travellers sometimes made their way from point 
to point in carts drawn by oxen, but the usual convey- 
ance was a palanquin, borne on men's shoulders. Some 
of the paths were tolerable in dry weather, but during the 
rainy season wholly impassable. 

Such were the facilities for travel when the project of 
constructing railroads was agitated. The plan was op- 
posed by many, not only in India, but in England. It 
was asserted that the natives never could be induced to 
enter a railway-car on account of their religion, which 
forbids an intermingling of castes. The Hindoos be- 
longed to a sluggish, indolent race. Contact with Euro- 
peans for a century had not quickened the millions of 
India, and it was doubtful if they could be vitalized by 
any of the appliances of modern civilization. So in- 
credulous were the public of obtaining any returns for 
their money, that with difficulty sufficient funds could be 
obtained for the opening of a short experimental line at 
Calcutta, and another at Bombay. 

Contrary to expectation, it was soon discovered that 



100 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 




THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA. 101 

fclie natives were eager to avail themselves of this new 
mode of travel. The success of the experiment was 
unmistakable, and measures were taken to develop a 
grand system of railways, to afford more direct and 
speedy communication between the chief cities of the 
seaboard and the interior. 

The work was undertaken by private companies. The 
government aided them, making over the land for a 
term of ninety-nine years, and also guaranteeing five per 
cent interest during the same period on the money 
spent in construction. All income was to be paid into 
the government treasury. After meeting the working 
expenses, the remainder was to be devoted to repaying 
the five-per-cent interest guaranteed for the current 
year. If then there should be a surplus, one half of 
it was to be divided between the stockholders and the 
government, — that for the government being for arrears 
of interest accumulated while the road was under con- 
struction. When all arrearages were paid, the companies 
were to receive ten per cent; but should the income 
exceed that rate, the authorities were to have power 
to lower the fares. The property is to revert to the 
government at the termination of ninety-nine years. 
Either company might surrender its franchise after three 
months' operation, and the government must take the 
road at its original cost. 

Under these conditions several companies were organ- 
ized. Looking first at the lines radiating from Bombay, 
we see one running directly up the coast to the three im- 
portant cities of Surat, Baroda, and Ahmedabad, which 
lie along the Gulf of Cambay. The line is completed to 
the last-named city, a distance of three hundred and 
twelve miles, and probably will be extended to Delhi, 
about eight hundred miles farther. 

The Great Indian Peninsular Railway consists of a 



102 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

trunk line and two branches. The trunk line is designed 
to connect Bombay with Allahabad, in the valley of the 
Ganges ; one branch, Bombay with the city of Nagpore, 
in the heart of India ; the other, Bombay with Madras, 
on the Coromandel coast. The main line, seven hundred 
and twenty miles in length, was completed during the 
year of 1869. The branch to Nagpore, a distance of 
five hundred and twenty miles, is already in use. It 
is not improbable that this branch may eventually be 
extended across the peninsula to Calcutta, and become a 
main line. Thirty-three miles out from Bombay is Calian 
junction, from which the Madras branch strikes south- 
east to Sholapore, a distance of two hundred and eighty- 
two miles. This company will have twelve hundred and 
sixty-six miles of railway when the several lines are 
finished. 

Looking at the south of India, we see a line already 
constructed from Beypore on the Malabar or western 
coast to Madras on the eastern ; also a line running 
northwest from Madras to connect with the road coming 
down from Bombay. The lines of Southern India are 
under the control of the Madras Bailway Company, 
which will have eight hundred and twenty-five miles 
when completed. The distance then between Madras 
and Bombay by rail will be about nine hundred miles. 

The accompanying map of the railway system thus 
far developed shows that Bombay bids fair to take posi- 
tion in the front rank of great commercial marts. Al- 
ready the mails for Calcutta, and for every portion of 
India except the Madras Presidency, are landed here ; 
and when the last rail of the line now in progress is laid, 
it will become the port of entry and departure for pas- 
sengers from Europe to India. It will then be easier and 
quicker to reach Madras and Calcutta by rail than by the 
present circuitous route by way of Ceylon and the Bay 
of Bengal. 



THE EAILWAYS OF INDIA. 103 

Going up to the mouth of the Indus by steamer from 
Bombay, we may land at Kurachee, and travel by rail one 
hundred and five miles to Hydrabad. We shall find the 
river at that point four miles wide, up which we may 
steam, during the rainy season, nearly a thousand miles 
to Moultan, where we take the Punjab Eailway, running 
northeast to Lahore two hundred and fourteen miles, then 
turning south toward Delhi. It will soon be in operation 
to that city, three hundred and fifty miles, making a total 
of five hundred and sixty-six miles controlled by the 
Punjab company. 

We may go from Delhi by rail down the valley of the 
Ganges in a southeast direction one thousand and seven- 
teen miles to Calcutta. This line is controlled by the 
East Indian Company, which has a branch running south- 
west from Allahabad two hundred and forty-three miles 
to Jubbulpore, there to connect with the main line of 
the great Peninsular Eailway coming up from Bombay. 
There are several branches in the Ganges Valley, which 
increase the total number of miles managed by this com- 
pany to fifteen hundred. It is one of the great railway 
companies of the world, — as gigantic and powerful as 
the Pacific or any other of the important trunk lines of 
the American continent. 

The railway system of India embraces about five thou- 
sand miles. A uniform gauge was adopted at the outset by 
the government, — that of five feet six inches, — a medium 
between the broad and narrow gauges of England. 

The construction of these railways has been beneficial 
not only to India, but to Great Britain, whence all the 
materials used in their construction have been trans- 
ported, giving a great stimulus to British industry, and 
employing a vast amount of shipping. Between 1853 
and 1867 more than three and a half million tons weight 
of railway material was shipped from English ports. 



104 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



The grading was done by natives, who at first declined 
to work for the contractors, fearing that they would be 
cheated out of their earnings. To inspire confidence, 
payments were made every night, and this soon brought 
a multitude of laborers. The wages were about ten cents 
per day, — a small sum, but the Hindoo at manual labor 
cannot accomplish more than one third as much as a 
European, and the cost of his support is comparatively 
trifling. 

We see several thousand men and women at work 
upon the unfinished lines. They fill their baskets with 
earth, raise the burden to the top of the head, walk in 
single file from the gravel-pit to the line of the road, and 
dump it upon the embankment. One of the contractors 
distributed several thousand wheelbarrows, and sent word 
that they must be used. A few days later he went out 
and found all hands carrying them on the top of the 
head ! 




HEAD WORK. 



The incident illustrates the tenacity with which the 
masses adhere to old customs. 



THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA. 105 

There were great difficulties to be surmounted, especially 
in crossing the mountain range along the western coast, 
called the Ghats, where eighteen hundred feet of elevation 
are overcome in sixteen miles, — the average inclination 
being one in forty-eight, the maximum one in thirty- 
seven. The Thull Ghat and the Bhore Ghat inclines 
required the labor of forty thousand men during the work- 
ing months of seven years. 

When the mutiny broke out all work was suspended, 
and for nearly two years little was accomplished towards 
extending railways. On the 1st of May, 1868, about four 
thousand miles had been completed, and one thousand 
were under contract, nearly all of which will be finished 
in 1870. 

The cost per mile is about £17,000 ($85,000).* The 
total amount of English capital already invested in In- 
dian railways is not less than three hundred and fifty 
million dollars. The five thousand miles in progress 
will ultimately cost not far from four hundred and fifty 
millions. 

A new line of railway, the Oude and Eohilcund, six 
hundred and thirty miles long, has recently been chartered, 
and work upon it will be commenced the present year. 

The road leading from Bombay to the valley of the 
Ganges, though opened only a portion of the way, has 
paid five per cent since 1866 ; that completed up the 
valley of the Ganges, and that leading from Madras across 
Southern India, have likewise earned five per cent. 

The chief revenue is derived from third-class passen- 
gers. It was early discovered that the natives would ride 
often if the fares were put at a low rate ; and the com- 
panies wisely adopted such a tariff as would develop 
travel. 

* Speech of Mr. Massey, late Minister of Indian Finance, in Parlia- 
ment, October 29, 1868. See London Times. 
5* 



106 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

In 1867 there were thirteen million seven hundred and 
sixty-four thousand passengers, and all but about six hun- 
dred thousand were third-class. It is five hundred and 
twenty miles from Bombay to Nagpore, and the fares are 
as follows : — 

First-class . . . . ' . $25.00 
Second-class ..... 12.50 
Third-class . . . . . 5.50 

Fcmrth-class 3.50 

The mail train has first, second, and third class cars, 
and goes through in seventeen hours. The cooly train 
has cars for all the four classes, but is thirty-three hours 
on the way. The Hindoo has already comprehended the 
truism that time is money ; for, notwithstanding he can 
save a trifle by taking fourth-class passage, he chooses 
the third instead, and patronizes the mail-train rather 
than one which is run in connection with freight-cars, and 
is nearly twice as long on the way. 

At the commencement of the railroad enterprise, the 
Brahmans petitioned for the running of caste cars. They 
could not come in contact with men of lower grade. It 
would defile their sacred persons, and unfit them for their 
high destiny, — absorption into Brahma after death. But 
the railroad managers had an eye to profits on their invest- 
ment. They could not put on cars for each separate 
caste. Such a procedure would be attended with great 
confusion in management, and increased expense. They 
therefore adopted the European system of class-cars, and 
told the Brahmans they could stay at home if they could 
not accommodate themselves to established rules. 

The result is a complete breaking up of caste on the 
railroad. Now the priest, who is pure enough to enter 
the most exalted circle of the Hindoo heaven, for the 
sake of saving a few rupees, can sit all day in a locked 
carriage on a hard bench, between two outcast Pariahs, 



THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA. 107 

the vilest of the vile, for whom there is no place in para- 
dise. The Brahman may drop off to sleep, and his head 
rest upon the shoulders of the degraded wretches, yet he 
is not defiled ! 

Under Mohammedan rule idolatry was in a great 
measure suppressed; but when the English came into power 
they refrained from interference with religious rites and 
ceremonies, and the Hindoos became very zealous for a 
revival of their decaying faith. Suttee was allowed, and 
there was no check upon infanticide. Temples which had 
been broken down were repaired, and new ones constructed. 
The wealthy gave liberally, nor did the poor withhold 
their contributions, till in every shady grove, and by every 
running stream, there was a temple to Krishna, Vishnu, 
or some other deity of the Hindoo pantheon. It is stated 
that at the present time there are not less than thirty 
thousand idol temples in the Bombay Presidency alone. 

But a great change is taking place among the people. 
Formerly it was believed that the gods alone conferred 
wealth, honor, and distinction, but the natives begin to 
see that steady industry brings wealth to those who have 
no faith in idols as well as to the most devout worshipper 
of manufactured deities. Ten years ago five thousand 
images of the idol Doorga were sold at the annual festival 
held on the banks of the Ganges in honor of that god ; 
but since the opening of railroads the sale has almost 
wholly ceased. 

The locomotive, like a ploughshare turning the sward 
of the prairies, is cutting up a faith whose roots run down 
deep into bygone ages. It is dragging a mighty train 
laden with goods for the whole human race, and especially 
the millions of this land. The engine does not turn out 
for obstructions such as in former days impeded the car 
of progress ; it makes mince-meat of bulls, be they bovine, 
Brahmanical, or papal. The days of Brahma are num- 



108 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

bered, and the time is not far distant when regenerated 
India will clap her hands for joy over the decision of those 
who directed that there should be no distinction of caste 
in railway carriages. 



CHAPTEK XI. 

HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 

TO arrive at a just estimate of the condition of the 
people and their prospects, it is necessary to take a 
brief review of their history. India is known to have 
been inhabited for nearly forty centuries, yet many of 
the aboriginal tribes still exist, — the Santhals, Khoonds, 
Pariahs, Malas, Domes, and Koles. It is from the last- 
named tribe that we have our modern word "cooly," a 
laborer. The ethnological differences between the Hin- 
doos and remnants of the ancient tribes are strongly 
marked, as are their habits and customs. 

Hindoos are divided into castes, while the aborigines 
have no such distinction. 

Hindoo widows do not marry ; but those of the native 
tribes take second husbands, usually a younger brother of 
the deceased, following the custom of the Jews and 
Scythians. 

Hindoos will not eat beef; but the aborigines have no 
religious scruples on the meat question, eating all they 
can get. 

Hindoos eat only what is prepared by one of their own 
caste ; while the Khoonds, Santhals, and Pariahs ask no 
questions about the cook, but eat whenever invited. 

The Hindoo religion forbids the use of fermented or 
distilled liquors ; but the primitive races think that the 



HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 109 

more liquor they drink the higher their spiritual con- 
dition ! 

The Hindoos have a priesthood of Brahmans, who 
are greatly venerated; but the aborigines respect their 
priests only as they perform wonders in medicine 01 
magic. 

The Hindoos dispose of their dead by burning ; but the 
Santhals and other remnants of the original tribes lay 
theirs in graves, with bows, arrows, and war-clubs. 

The government of the Hindoos, from their earliest 
history, has been municipal ; while that of the tribes has 
always been patriarchal. 

The Hindoos have their courts of justice, composed of 
equals ; but the tribes have chiefs who decide matters in 
dispute. 

Three thousand years ago the Hindoos were well ad- 
vanced in science, art, and literature ; but to this day 
the aboriginals have made no advancement towards civili- 
zation. 

The people of Southern India are the Tamils, who in 
form and feature bear a strong resemblance to the Tartars 
of Central Asia. Their language resembles that spoken 
by the ancient Scythians. Their ancestors were in South- 
ern India long before the dawn of authentic history, 
and there are temples now standing which are as old 
as the pyramids of Egypt, which, from their massive- 
ness and beauty, attest the greatness of an age of which 
there are no written records. 

By reference to the map on p. 100, it will be seen that a 
railway has been constructed from Beypore on the west- 
ern to Madras on the eastern coast. South of that line 
are numerous structures of wonderful architecture, di- 
verse from that of the Hindoos, and reared by the old 
Turanians, showing that, long before the appearance of 
the Hindoos, the country was occupied by a people far 
advanced in civilization. 



110 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD, 

Christian nations accept the Bible account of the rise 
and progress of the human race as authentic history ; so 
the Hindoos turn to their sacred books — the Vedas — 
for a history of their own race. The Vedas are the 
"fountains of knowledge," and consist of four books. 
The oldest is the Rig Veda, which contains about one 
thousand hymns, ranked among the oldest writings in the 
world. No detinite statements are given as to the early 
origin and history of the Hindoo nation, but from passages 
in the hymns it is evident that, about the time the chil- 
dren of Israel left Egypt, one of the tribes which had been 
dwelling among the mountains of Persia moved southeast, 
crossed the mountains which lie northwest of the Indus, 
and took possession of the fertile valley of that great river. 
They called themselves Aryans. In the hymns, which 
were composed by their poets at a later period, and 
were handed down from father to son till committed to 
writing, we hear them sighing on those heated plains for 
the coolness of the Northern climes, — for the frosts and 
snows and life-giving breezes of their native land. They 
had fair complexions, but the southern sun was marring 
their beauty. In the summer the ground was parched, 
the great river dwindling to a narrow stream ; their flocks 
and herds were dying for want of water, and they sent 
up their prayers for relief to their god of rain. 

" Sindhu, renowned bestower of wealth, hear us, and 
bring water to our broad fields." 

One thousand years later the poets and historians 
of Greece talked of the Sinclhus of the far East, and from 
them we have our modern word Hindoo. 

The native houses which we see in the country to-day, 
sheltered by waving palms, are types of those which 
stood on these wide plains twenty-five centuries ago. The 
Aryans, when they entered the valley of the Indus, lived 
in tents, but they found there a people dwelling in sub- 
stantial houses. 



HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. Ill 

They were herdsmen and kept cows, horses, camels 
and humped oxen. Their great ambition was the posses- 
sion of cows. The Sanscrit word for " war," when traced 
back to its root, signifies " a desire for cows." They 
lived in villages, had workers in iron, copper, and gold. 
They had chariots and tame elephants in war. The wo- 
men could spin and weave, and were termed the " light 
of the dwelling." They were not debarred from acquir- 
ing knowledge. Society was not divided into castes, and 




V 



, Biff M 

life 



HOUSE IN IXDIA. 



m 



the Brahmans were but one of several orders of priests. 
Men could eat together without defilement. They had 
thirty-three gods, who are thus invoked : — 

" G-ods who are eleven in heaven, eleven in earth, and 
who are eleven dwelling in glory in mid-air, may ye be 
pleased with our sacrifice ! " 

The other books of the Vedas were composed at later 
periods, one of which, " The Institutes of Menu," is sup- 
posed to have been written some live or six centuries be- 



112 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

fore Christ, or about the time of Sennacherib, Nebuchad- 
nezzar, and Hezekiah in Biblical history. 

By another reference to the map, a line is seen run- 
ning northeast from Bombay, crossing the Nerbudda Eiver. 
Menu speaks of the country south of it as the Dakshan, 
or Deccan, and describes the inhabitants as barbarians, 
living in forests, and speaking an unknown language. 

Comparing the Vedas with the Bible, we learn that 
during the six centuries and more which elapsed from the 
departure of the children of Israel from Egypt to the time 
when Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, and carried 
the people to Babylon, the Hindoos had only grown to be 
a nation occupying the northern half of India. It was 
within that period that the Brahmans set themselves up 
as a holy priesthood, and through them caste had its origin. 

There are four principal castes, — Brahmans, or priests ; 
Chhatteris, or soldiers ; Vyshes, a class of merchants ; and 
Sudras, including petty tradesmen, clerks, writers, and la- 
borers. Each order is subdivided. Every trade has its 
caste ; carpenters, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, barbers, fish- 
ermen, shoemakers, leather-dressers, tailors, and all 
branches of industry. The tailor is superior to the 
leather-dresser ; the carpenter is defiled by coming in con- 
tact with the man who keeps cows. The Hindoo clings 
to caste as he does to life. There is no intermarrying. 
A woman who is born among the weavers may love a 
water-carrier sufficiently to elope with him, but to take the 
marriage vow would be sacrilege ; or a high-caste Brah- 
man may be enamored by the beauty of the swineherd's 
daughter, and take her for a mistress ; that would not be 
defilement, but he would lose his chance of heaven were 
he to make her his wife ! 

These distinctions are so rigidly adhered to, that though 
a man may be dying for want of a drink of water, he 
will not take it irom a cup used by one of a lower 



HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 113 

order. As a rule, a Hindoo of one caste will not help one 
of another, though the timely aid might save life. It is 
stronger than the instincts of humanity. It is mas- 
ter of all trades, professions, and callings. The son is not 
at liberty to depart from the occupation of his fathers. 
Nature may have given him capabilities of becoming 
a Euclid or a Herodotus, but if the father is a driver of 
donkeys, such must be the calling of the son. It is the 
mightiest task-master of the ages ; body, intellect, soul, 
are in slavery, and under the Hindoo system there is no 
emancipation from it for time or eternity. 

How the Brahmans obtained their power is not re- 
corded ; but inasmuch as they were the learned men 
of ancient times, and as knowledge is power and ig- 
norance weakness, it is not wonderful that they were 
able to exalt themselves into a ruling priesthood. 
There was a time when Borne was only a bishopric, but a 
few centuries of ecclesiastical assumption and arrogance, 
enabled popes to put their feet on the necks of kings. 
There is no instinct so strong as that of religion in the 
human race ; and so the priesthood of Hindostan were 
able, through the credulity and ignorance of their follow- 
ers, to create that mighty system of caste which is without 
a parallel in human history. 

Succeeding the poetical period of the Vedas was the 
philosophical age, which began nearly six hundred years 
before the time of Christ. While Solon was forming a 
constitution for his country at Athens the Brahmans were 
indulging in philosophical speculations, and reducing 
them to systems which to-day are accepted by myriads 
of the human race. One might as well try to penetrate 
the densest jungle of India as attempt to give in detail 
the schools of Hindoo philosophy. The diversity is as 
great as that which distinguishes modern theology. An 
enumeration of the names is sufficient to give us a head- 

6 H 



114 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

ache. There is the Nyaya school, the Vaisheiska, the 
Sankhya, the Yoga, the Puva Mimansa, and the Vedanta. 
These may be grouped into three classes. 

The first speculates upon the knowledge that comes 
to us through the five senses. The second reasons on 
methods of inquiry, logic, and justice, — asserting the 
atomic theory and the eternity of matter, — a system which 
appears at the present day under the name of realism. 
The third is Pantheistic, asserting that there is but one 
real existence in the universe, — the immortal, self-existent 
Brahma, who is the soul and substance of all matter. 
All of the schools believe in the transmigration of souls. 
They do not look upon it as a blessing, but an evil, — a 
condition of existence to be avoided if possible. 

The Sankhya philosophy teaches that all disturbance 
of the soul is due to the antagonism between matter and 
spirit ; that once they were separate, but being united in 
this life, the inevitable result is pain, sorrow, disquietude ; 
and that only through successive transmigrations after 
death can there be perfect freedom. 

The Yoga philosophy teaches that immunity from pain, 
sorrow, and remorse can only be obtained by the concen- 
tration of the mind in intense thought on nothing ! Devo- 
tees of this sect are to be seen in meditative attitude, tak- 
ing no notice of things around them, their eyes fixed on 
vacuity, their thoughts on nothing, expecting thus to 
arrive at perfect bliss ! Under this philosophy the idiot 
should be tke happiest of mortals. 

Brahmanism has its dissenters and independents, its 
Ultramontane and Cisalpine parties. Some men believe 
in obtaining merit through sacrifice, others by pilgrimage, 
hook-swinging, or costly offerings to the gods. It teaches 
the deification of heroes, poets, statesmen, princes, — 
great men,- — great in wickedness as well as power, and 
that there are gods without number. 



HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 115 

We can go no further. Beyond us is an impene- 
trable thicket of speculation, credulity, ignorance, fanati- 
cism, and superstition. Through twenty-four centuries 
the philosophy of the Brahmans has held sway, except 
during the period when Buddhism was triumphant ; and 
all progress in search of truth may be summed up in one 
sentence, " The world by wisdom knew not God." 

Nor can we follow the changes which have taken place 
in the condition of the people under their rulers, — Per- 
sians, Greeks, native rajahs, Moguls, and Maharatta 
princes, — their advancement in art and science, and their 
retrogradation and decay. We may measure the turmoil 
and commotion of India by that of Europe during the 
Middle Ages. Army after army has marched over these 
wide plains. War has succeeded war. Millions have 
been slaughtered, and millions swept away by famine. 
Once it was a great empire, governed by one man, the 
great Arungzebe, but the fabric crumbled. Once the 
crescent flag waved from Cape Comorin to Cashmere, and 
the religion of Mahomet was triumphant over Brahman- 
ism. But the Mohammedan power went down. Its last 
dying struggle in India was when the mutineers of the 
late rebellion shot their officers, slaughtered men, women, 
and children indiscriminately, expecting that by an exter- 
mination of all foreigners there would be an end of Eng- 
lish rule. 

But the hand of the Briton is powerful, and India is 
more securely fastened to-day to the British throne than 
ever before. Slowly but surely England is establishing 
here a new empire, founded on Christian civilization. 



116 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



CHAPTEE XII. 

THROUGH THE DECCAN. 

T is a motley crowd which we see at the railway station 
in Bombay, where we take our seats in the cars for a 
trip through the Deccan. Here and there we see a high- 
caste Brahman holding himself aloof as much as possible 
from the great herd of natives, but who, inasmuch as he 
cannot afford a first or second class ticket, is compelled 
to mix with the crowd. 

Third-class passengers are not allowed to roam at will 
about the station, but are kept in pens, like sheep, till 
just before the starting of the train, then crammed into 
cars like those used for the transportation of stock on 
American roads. The only difference between the con- 
veyance of cattle in our own country and natives in 
India is this : in the one case oxen and cows are put 
into the same car, while in the other there is a separa- 
tion of the sexes. 

Leaving the station at Bombay, we sweep through the. 
suburbs, past the delightful gardens of the Parsees, wealthy 
merchants, and bankers. In one the Mohammedans are 
keeping the feast of the month, the j oiliest of all the 
year. Whoever dies now will find the gates of heaven 
wide open. 

It is the hour of evening twilight, and in the gather- 
ing darkness we behold a crowd of revellers beneath the 
trees. An hour's ride brings us to the Ghats, or hills. We 
wind through valleys, gradually ascending, leaving the 
luxuriant vegetation of the sea-coast, and finding instead 
stunted shrubs, and ground so parched that it crunches 



THROUGH THE DECCAN. 



117 



beneath our feet as we step from the car for a breath of 
fresh air at the stations. 

Mountains with ragged rocks tower above us, deep 
gorges and beds of dried-up rivers lie below us. Nassick, 
a town on the sum- 



init of the Ghats, is 
on the verge of the 
great plateau that 
extends across the 
country to the Bay 
of Bengal, which is 
as far as from Chi- 
cago to Boston. The 
water that in the 
rainy season falls 
in this town reaches 
the Bay of Bengal 
through the Goda- 
very river. 

Whenever the 
train comes to a 
stopping-place, we 
hear the Hindoos 
in the cars merrily 
chattering. At ev- 
ery station there 
are some to leave, TAKING A DRINK - 

others to get in. The company have watermen at all the 
stations, who go among the crowd with leather bottles 
slung to their backs. When a native wishes to drink, he 
sits upon his heels, claps his hands to his mouth, presses 
them firmly against his under lip, thus making a spout 
into which the carrier slowly pours a stream of water. 

We breakfast at the junction of the Nagpore branch 
with the main line. The country in the vicinity is 




118 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

generally level. Northward we behold flat-topped hills, 
rising one or two hundred feet above the plain. The last 
year's cotton crop has been gathered from the neigh- 
boring fields, and the snowy product is piled in unpressed 
bales near the station. Speculators are about, — English 
buyers from Bombay, — in a great stew because they can- 
not get it rushed down at once to the seaboard, while 
high prices prevail. 

We speak of fields, but they are not enclosed. There 
are no fences. Having reached Central India, we confess 
that our preconceived ideas of the country are all wrong. 
What school-boy has not received the impression from 
geographies that it is a country of almost pathless forests, 
where one is in danger of being trampled to death by 
wild elephants or devoured by tigers, and where boa- 
constrictors, winding down from the tree-tops, are ever 
on the watch to enfold us in their slimy coils, crush 
every bone in the body, and swallow us at a mouthful ! 

We find, instead, a plateau, with here and there a grove,, 
sometimes a thicket, and once in a while a patch of wood- 
land. On the mountains there are forests. But a jungle 
is not always a dark, dense, impenetrable growth of vines,, 
creepers, shrubs, bushes, and trees, but all waste land, even 
that which in the United States is called pasture-land, is 
classed as jungle. 

Central India is very much, in its general features, like 
Illinois, except that the palm, the cocoanut, bamboo, and 
banyan take the place of black-jack, persimmon, and pa- 
paw. There is the same scarcity of timber, only a few 
trees dotting the landscape. We miss the well-swarded 
fields of the West, the great herds of cattle, neat farm- 
houses, and wheat-stacks looming on the horizon, — the 
signs of thrift and enterprise, — and behold instead a 
wide plain, huts of bamboo, thatched with grass, which 
a lighted match would whiff out of sight in two min utes, 



THROUGH THE DECCAN. 



119 



a few goats and cattle, so lean that they cast but thin 
shadows, a sharpened stick for a plough, carts of the 
pattern in use two thousand years ago, with plank trucks 
for wheels, and a little framework body of bamboo lashed 
together by cords. 

But no Western lady can appear in such gorgeous cos- 
tume as the Hindoo woman before us, wearing a robe of 
crimson silk reaching to the knees, trimmed with yellow 
bands across the shoulder, a yellow skirt edged around 
the bottom with cloth of silver, beneath which is an 
under-skirt of purple silk. There is silver enough in the 
broad rings and bands clasping her ankles for a set of 
table-spoons, to say nothing of the display on her arms, 
round her neck, dangling from her ears and nose, and 
gleaming on her fingers, or of what she has lavished 
upon the garmentless child toddling by her side. She 
sits down in the dirt with another woman, and the two 
examine each other's heads for — phrenological develop- 
ments, of course ! 




INTERESTING DISCOVERY. 



120 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

The mercury is 105° in the shade, 130° in the sun, — 
weather likely to last through, the month. In such an 
atmosphere the woodwork of houses, furniture, carriages, 
and everything exposed to the sun, shrinks marvellously. 
The coachmen and carters wind the spokes of their wheels 
with straw, which they wet from time to time, — watering 
their carriages as well as their horses ! Hats large enough 
in the morning are two sizes too small at night, and had 
ours not been soaked with water before leaving the train, 
we should have been compelled to ride to the hotel bare- 
headed. The wind which sweeps over the plain is like 
the breath of the sirocco. It burns, blisters, and turns 
the whitest skin to bronze. An English gentleman here, 
who has been exposed to the sun of India for nine years, 
has lost all freshness of complexion ; the usual floridity 
of countenance has disappeared, and, so far as color is 
concerned, we might class him as a half-blooded Hindoo. 

It is impossible for one who has not been in India 
through the hot season to comprehend the intensity of 
the heat, the mercury during the day registering 130°, 
and 100° at night. The scorching air is like a blast from 
a furnace, and tries the endurance of Europeans fearfully. 
Great care must be taken to avoid sunstroke. Cover- 
ings for the head like trays, made of pith or cork, or 
patterned after the old Roman helmets, are worn. It 
is dangerous to go out in the middle of the day un- 
less thus protected. Natives as well as Europeans carry 
sun-umbrellas. At the station, where we stop for din- 
ner, thick mats, called tatties, are hung in the door- 
ways and windows, which, being kept constantly wet, 
give coolness to the air within, where, though the tem- 
perature is 98°, it is cold in contrast with the furnace 
heat outside. 

Visitors to India should time their journey so as to 
be there in winter. The rainy season commences at 



THROUGH THE DECCAN. 



121 



Bombay about the 9th of June, and continues till the 
middle of October. No one can travel with comfort dur- 
ing that period, and little business is accomplished. But 
November, December, January, February, and March are 
charming months. The air is clear and calm, the sky 
serene, the temperature delightful. The lowest range of 
the mercury in winter is about 52°, but in the months of 
April and May, the hottest of the year, the average heat 
is about 100° in the shade. 




A NAGPORE COACH. 



It is eleven o'clock in the evening when we reach Nag- 
pore, one of the chief towns in Central India, the pres- 
ent terminus of the railway. We place our baggage in 
the hands of a native, who is shouting, " Carriage for the 
Residency Hotel." We find that the coach is a two- 
wheeled cart, with a canvas top. We enter at the tail ; 
the two lean, white oxen attached to the vehicle start 
off upon the run down the broad street, the driver 

6 



122 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



whacking their sides with a bamboo, jerking the ropes in 
their noses, wringing their tails, and bringing us up to 
the hotel in grand style. 

We can see by the light of the moon that the building 
is about sixty feet square, of one story, with a pyramid of 
thatch for the roof, and a wide veranda in front and on 
the sides. Several tents are pitched near by for sleeping- 
apartments, to one of which we are assigned. It is large, 
high, with three thicknesses of canvas upon the roof to 
protect us from the sun. We lie down on cane cots, for 
a mattress would only add to the heat, and find refreshing 
sleep. An hour before daylight we hear the gurgling 
of water, and looking about to see what fountain has sud- 
denly begun to play, discover a Hindoo, with a leathern 
bottle slung to his shoulders, pouring water into an 
earthen bath-tub. 





OUR QUARTERS. 



" Sahib, your bath is ready." Sahib is the Hindoo 
word for " master." A low-class Hindoo has no conception 



THKOUGH THE DECCAN. 123 

of the meaning of our word " mister." Centuries of sub- 
jection to superior races has obliterated the instincts of 
manhood, and he only understands that those whom he 
finds above him are his masters. 

It is delightful to sit in the doorway of our tent in the 
■cool of the morning, and look out upon the landscape. 
The tamarind waves its green leaves above us. Yonder 
is an avenue of feathery bamboos. In the distance rise 
long, slender, graceful palms. A huge elephant, flapping 
his immense ears, and moving with ungainly gait, appears 
in view. Sparrows chatter amid the shrubs. Crows hop 
past our door, and stalk into the tent with all the famil- 
iarity of the bird of ill-omen which Poe apostrophizes : — 

" When with many a flirt and flutter 
In there stepped- a stately raven." 

They alight upon our chairs, cock their eyes, and caw with 
hoarse voice. The crickets are chirping. The music of 
the military band on parade swells grandly on the air, 
mingling its harmony with the tones of the church-bell 
tolling the hours. Curiously constructed carts, drawn 
by oxen on the gallop, dash down the street, the dusky 
drivers wearing red, yellow, green, or white turbans. 
Women in gay costume, bearing water-jars, baskets, and 
bundles on their heads, with little silver bells tinkling at 
their ankles, gaze at us as they walk past the hotel ; while 
here and there groups of ebony imps, without jacket, 
trousers, or shirt, roll in the sand and kick up their heels 
in youthful glee. This scene is so unlike anjiMng to 
which our eyes have been accustomed, that we wonder 
if we have not at last reached the land of Jack and his 
hean-stalk ! 



124 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

RIDING IN A DAK. 

THERE being no railway communication between 
Nagpore and Jubbulpore, we pass over this part of 
Central India in a dak. This is a four-wheeled vehicle, 
not unlike a London cab, except that the body is so 
arranged that passengers can lie down if they choose. A 
line of these carriages has been established between the 
two cities, with stations for change of horses about five 
miles apart. It is called the Deccan Horse Dak. The 
distance from Nagpore to Jubbulpore is one hundred and 
sixty miles, and the advertised time for the journey 
thirty-six hours ; but at this season of the year we should 
be baked, grilled, stewed, fried, melted, or dried up, 
were we to travel by day. No white man would at- 
tempt it, unless compelled by necessity. "We are to 
ride by night, and hie by during the day in one of the 
company's bungalows. These are buildings of stone 
with rafters of bamboo, thatched with straw, containing 
four or six rooms. They are built along the route about 
twenty-five miles apart, and are furnished with chairs, 
tables, plates, knives, forks, spoons, wash-basins, bath- 
ing-tubs, towels, and cots. The keeper can supply chick- 
ens, rice, potatoes, eggs, coffee and tea, milk, and cakes 
made of rice flour, called cTiaputies. At one or two 
stations beer, wine, and liquors may be obtained, but 
unless we take canned meats along with us we shall 
not have a great variety of fare. The charges for what 
we obtain in the way of food are not exorbitant, and 
to those who are accustomed to " eat what is set before 



RIDING IN A DAK, 



125 



them, asking no questions," and make the best of every- 
thing, a little daking in India will not he unpleasant, and 
will furnish incidents of travel not to be met with in any- 
other quarter of the globe. 

At six o'clock, P. m., the sun nearly down, all hands at 
the Eesidency Hotel come out to see us off. It is an 
amusing scene. Our dak is hung on elliptic springs, — 
though one of the party has not, by the sense of feeling, 
yet discovered that they ease the jolting of the carriage. 
Its windows and doors are open for the free circulation 




GETTING UNDER WAY. 



of air, and enable us to take a view of the country as we 
pass along. Our luggage is on the top. The hubs of 
the wheels are wound with straw, which is watered the 
last thing before starting, for everything is thirsty in this 
land. On each side of the dak is an awning of thick 
cotton duck, which* we can have up or down at pleasure. 
It bears the words " Deccan Horse Dak." We sit with 
great dignity and decorum, the observed of a score of 



126 -OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

natives, who take as much delight in seeing a dak off 
as country boys in Yankee-land enjoyed in seeing the 
stage-coach start from the village tavern before the days 
of railroads. 

We look at the horses, somewhat larger than mice, — 
one placed outside the shafts, though there is space 
enough for both between them. Our driver, in a dirty, 
pea-green jacket, white turban, three or four yards of cot- 
ton cloth round his loins, a battered post-horn slung over 
his shoulder, stout whip with a short handle and lash, 
mounts the box, winds a blast, long, loud, deep, and 
chirrups to his mice ; but they do not move. The admir- 
ing lookers-on put their shoulders to the wheels, the mice 
are pushed a few steps, and once getting underway start 
off at a trot. We roll out of the hotel yard, gain the 
highway, the driver lashing his animals into a run, blow- 
ing his horn, and screaming to everybody to get out of 
the way. " Hy-yi ! Hy-yi ! " he shouts, driving like a 
madman, the dak rattling and reeling, and the natives 
looking on with wonder and admiration. 

Our own admiration rises with the occasion. This is 
romantic, — riding through India, the land of Brahma 
and Buddha, in such glorious style, — and we half resolve 
to parody Saxe's " Biding on a Bail " by a poem called 
" Biding in a Dak." But our enthusiasm meets with a 

o 

sudden chill. A mile of such break-neck speed and we 
come to a stand-still. A nut has dropped from a bolt, and 
one shaft falls upon the ground. Jehu dismounts, looks 
at it, makes a wry face, scratches up an idea from his 
long black hair, breaks a twig the size of a pipe-stem 
from a bush, puts it into the bolt-hole, and ties up the 
shaft with a cord. It is not pleasant to think of going 
one hundred and sixty miles with such a fix-up. Walk- 
ing back a few rods, we find the missing bolt. Jehu is 
delighted. He produces a pair of nippers, examines the 



RIDING IN A DAK. 127 

dak, finds a nut which he thinks may be spared, wrenches 
it from its bolt, transfers it to the shaft, and, having thus 
repaired damages, puts the mice into a run again, and 
whirls us over the first stage with but little loss of time. 

The managers of the dak company have not given 
much attention to the proper matching of their horses ; 
one of our second pair is tall enough for a dragoon, the 
other but little larger than a Shetland pony. 

Ten miles bring us to a military cantonment in the vil- 
lage of Kamptel, — a charming place, with wide avenues, 
shaded by great trees. The residences of the officers are 
surrounded with flowers and well-kept lawns. Just be- 
fore reaching the place we pass a church, its tower and 
spire standing out in beauty against the sky. After 
having been a wanderer for so many months where there 
are few churches, it is an unexpected but exceedingly 
pleasant sight. Beyond the town we have another sen- 
sation. Jehu gives a long, loud blast, dismounts, takes 
his horses from the dak, comes to the window, rattles 
off some lingo which we do not understand, and dis- 
appears with his horses, leaving the dak in the middle 
of the road. 

There are times when the best thing a man can do is 
to follow the philosophy of Mr. Micawber, and wait for 
something to turn up. One thing we are sure of, the dak 
will not run away. In the course of half an hour a 
native with a pair of diminutive oxen comes up, climbs 
to the top of the dak, takes a beam which is lashed to the 
iron railing, and fastens it to the end of the shafts. While 
thus occupied his oxen go off to pasture, but he brings 
them back, lashes their horns to the timber, mounts the 
box, jerks the ropes in their noses, and away we go down 
a steep hill, through a deep excavation, enveloped in dust 
and gloom, emerging upon the bank of . a river among 
carts, cattle, donkeys, and dusky crowds of men, biv- 



128 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



ouacked for the night. They are going to or returning 
from Nagpore with cotton. 

Gaining the opposite bank, our oxman, with his cattle, 
departs, leaving us as before in the middle of the road ; 




A STEADY TEAM. 



but after a while our own Jehu returns with fresh horses, 
that is, if such skeletons with hides like old hair-trunks, 
bruised and battered, can be called fresh in any sense. 
No Hindoo horse starts of his own accord ; he must be 
pushed a few steps. So we are accompanied by three 
men, who put their shoulders to the wheels, pull the ani- 
mals by the ears, strike them with clubs, punch them in 
the sides, rap their knees, slip a cord around their fore 
legs to draw them along, and go through many other 
equally persuasive performances. Once under way, the 
creatures go as if running for the sweepstakes, till wet 
with sweat and foam. 

So through the night we ride on over a road as smooth, 
hard, and well built as any turnpike in old England. It 



RIDING IN A DAK. 



129 



is interesting to see the nondescript vehicles, — crazy 
concerns, with plank trucks, bamboo frames, and not a 
pin, bolt, or scrap of iron about them, the pieces of the 
rickety things all tied together with ropes and strings. 
With a knife we could in two minutes make one of them 
as complete a ruin as Holmes's " one-horse shay." We 
pass numerous villages of bamboo huts, the houses a trifle 
larger than hencoops. The Mohammedan portion of the 
community have fires kindled by the roadside, around 
which they are having a grand religious hullabaloo, — 
joining hands, dancing, singing, and shouting, keeping up 
the wake till daybreak. 




1 lak* 



DEAD SET. 



Sunrise finds us at Karyea, one of the bungalow sta- 
tions, a small place fifty-five miles from Nagpore, at the 
foot of one of the southern ranges of hills which run 
across India from the coast, above Bombay, nearly to Cal- 
cutta. While spending the day here an Englishman 
comes to the bungalow who has been in the country 
twenty years or more, now having charge of hands em- 

6* I 



130 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD, 

ployed in the construction of a bridge across a river near 
by. He has been in close contact with the natives in the 
southeast, west, and north, can speak the language per- 
fectly, and knows the habits and ways of the people. 

Sitting under the veranda, he narrates the story of his 
life. He was at Cawnpore when the mutiny broke out. 
Saw his wife and two children cut down before his eyes, 
hacked to pieces by the swords of the fiends ; was him- 
self shot, pitched over a wall, and left for dead. 

" Ah ! " said he, " it was terrible to see my poor wife cut 
to pieces, — literally chopped up, and my two children 
also. It upset me. I can't forget it. I was getting 
along well ; had seventeen thousand rupees laid up, but 
it is all gone. I don't care for money now. Life is a 
burden." 

Though there is a wild gleam in his eyes, yet he has 
no words of bitterness to utter against the natives. He 
goes out alone by night into the woods, and thinks over 
the past, — the dear old times before that tragedy, which 
put a blight upon his life. 

" The natives," he says, " are very kind to me. I never 
struck one of them. I mean to use them well. There 
are men in this village here," he points to the collection 
of bamboo huts, " who would give their hearts' blood for 
me." He is exceedingly severe upon his own country- 
men for their treatment of the natives. " There is a native 
here who has taken the contract from government to 
build a bridge for their new road ; he is rolling in wealth, 
has been to London, and was educated there. He has 
the best of liquors, keeps a good table, has ice brought all 
the way from Boston, is very hospitable, gives away no 
end of money, invites Englishmen to dine with him, and 
to hunt and fish. They come and drink his liquors, and 
then when he meets them in Calcutta or Bombay they 
don't know him ! " 



RIDING IN A DAK. 



131 



" Young officers," says he, " who buy a commission in 
the army come out here, not knowing a word of the lan- 
guage, and think they can lord it over the natives. 
They call for this, that, and the other, just as they are ac- 
customed to do at home ; the things can't be had, and, 
more than that, the native, perhaps, does not comprehend 
one word of the order. The Englishman gets mad, raves, 




THE MASTER RACE. 

swears, throws a plate or a beer-bottle at the servant, 
kicks him out of the bungalow, when he ought to be 
kicked out himself. They do not like us as a nation very 
well, and I do not wonder at it." 

He says that a great change has taken place since the 
introduction of railroads. There is a general desire among 
the natives to obtain an education, and especially to be 
able to speak the English language. He thinks that it is 
caste rather than idolatry which hinders progress in India. 
An educated native usually throws aside idols and becomes 
a free-thinker. He sees little in the conduct of those 
who call themselves Christians to commend Christianity, 



132 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

The natives, as a body, take all Europeans to be Chris- 
tians, but the majority of Englishmen whom they see curse 
and swear, get beastly drunk, and do many things re- 
pugnant to Hindoo notions of morality and religion. This 
is one reason why missionaries make comparatively few 
converts. He condemns many acts of British rule as 
uncalled for, unjust, and sometimes cruel. India has 
been looked upon as a lemon which might be squeezed 
for the benefit of Englishmen, but a brighter day has 
dawned upon this land ; the East India Company is no 
more ; a liberal policy has been inaugurated ; great public 
works have been undertaken which will be of incalculable 
benefit. 

" The American war has been the main cause of this 
sudden advancement," he says. " "When cotton went up 
in price everybody began to plant ; but it cost so much to 
get it to the seaboard, that the people in the interior 
could n't afford to raise it, and thus came the demand for 
roads." 

Many ryots (farmers) have made money enough since 
1861 to become land-owners ; they have emancipated 
themselves from the money-lenders, who are the curse 
of the country. Formerly seventy-five per cent was the 
usual price paid for money ! The lender did not expect 
to get back the principal, but he managed to extort the 
interest, and the ryot remained always poor. 

This Englishman has done a great deal of hunting, first 
and last. He says that we are in the tiger region. Two 
years agj» "he saw a tiger shot from the window of the 
bungalow where we are sitting. It was in the edge of 
the evening. The dogs of the village had been barking 
furiously -all day ; and the horses, sniffing the air, pricking 
up their ears, just at night took to their heels and left 
the place. Dogs and horses alike have a keen scent for 
tigers. The animal came up to the bungalow, stood 



BIDING IN A DAK. 



133 



within ten feet of it, when a native from the window put 
two balls through his body, and brought him down. There 
is a famous old tiger now at large, a " man-eater," who 
has carried off several persons ; for once having had a taste 
of human flesh, he prefers it to any other. Five hundred 
rupees have been offered for this ferocious fellow, and 
parties are getting ready to hunt him down. 




A MAN-EATEE. 



At sunset we are once more on the way, winding 
slowly over the hills, where about two thousand natives, 
men and women, are building a turnpike. We pass two 
abodes of the gods, — one in a ledge, the other in a tree. 
The worshippers have been rubbing red paint on the 
rocks and trees. This is the work of the Hindoos, but 
the Mohammedans, equally religious, are dancing in com- 
memoration of the death of Hassan. 

The half-way station on the route is at Seonee, a large 
town, the centre of a great traffic. "With our horses upon 
the run, our driver blowing his trumpet like a trooper, we 
rattle down a hill, and come to a halt amid a multitude 
of carts and wagons, nearly all loaded with cotton. It is 



134 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

a calm, clear, moonlight night, and the scene around us is 
of great interest. Numerous fires are kindled, around 
which swarthy Hindoos are seated. Some are eating- 
supper, and others lying down to sleep. This is the 
grand bivouac ; but near by are the town's-people keep- 
ins; the festival. 




MIDNIGHT FESTIVAL. 



Groups of women are crouched around tarboots, — 
boxes adorned with red, yellow, and green paper, and 
silver tinsel, — before which a lamp is burning. From 
every quarter of the town we hear the rub-a-dub-dub 
of drums and the squeak of flageolets. 

We have an hour's detention for the greasing of dak- 
wheels ; but when the time expires there is no harness- 
ing of horses, or indication that we are to go on. We 
make signs and motions in the most expressive panto- 



RIDING IN A DAK. 



135 



mime to those around us, not one of whom can speak 
English. There are loud words among themselves, and 
evidently a hitch of some sort. We are perplexed, but, 
making the best of the situation, wander for a half-hour 
amid the crowd, solitary among the thousands. But now 
to our relief and satisfaction an Englishman, who is on 
his way home, making all haste to reach Bombay before 
the sailing of the steamer, drives up. He can speak the 
language of the country, and informs us, after inquiry, 
that the driver whose duty it is to take us on will not go ; 
that the Moonshee, the man in charge at this station, is 
a forceless fellow, and cannot start the obstinate driver, 
who wants ' to stay and have a good time during the fes- 
tival. 

" The only way," he adds, " to get along with the ras- 
cals is to give., them a good stirring up." 




STIRRING UP A HINDOO. 



Having coaxed in vain by pantomime, we conclude 
to act upon the suggestion. We find the Moonshee, a 
thin-faced, gray-headed Hindoo, cooking his rice over a 



136 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

fixe on the ground, where he sits in a contented, medita- 
tive attitude, his hands clasping his knees, looking at the 
nickering light. "We can hardly make up our mind to 
disturb such peace and contentment. But that man was 
a fool who went out and sat down upon the bank of a 
great river and waited for it to run by before attempting 
to cross. The contentment of a Hindoo is equally with- 
out end ; it lasts forever. Necessity in such a case knows 
no mercy. We spring towards him like a tiger, shake 
our fist within an inch of his nose, and shout, " Put on 
the horses quick, or you '11 catch it ! " 

He leaps like a scared antelope, and points to a black 
fellow who is having a jolly time with half a dozen com- 
rades. He is the intractable rascal who had blocked our 
way. Seizing him by the shoulder we set him spinning 
like a top, shake our fists, and scream again at the top of 
our voice. The effect is magical. In a twinkling the 
horses are harnessed, and we are on our way, laughing at 
the ludicrousness of the whole affair. 

We drop off to sleep, but awake after a while to find the 
carriage standing in the middle of the road, without any 
horses. We are in the predicament of the man of whom 
everybody has heard, who either had lost two horses or 
found a cart. Horses and driver are gone. We wait 
patiently for further developments. An hour passes, and 
then the driver appears with a yoke of oxen, and gives 
us to understand that the horses balked, and that he has 
been back to the station for another team. 

We are under way once more ; but soon come to a 
dead stop, for one of the wheels is just ready to fly from 
the axle. The whole concern is so rickety that we only 
escape wreck by constant watchfulness. We tie one part 
with ropes, and tinker another with a hammer which 
keeps flying from the handle. But as eternal vigilance is 
the price of liberty, so is it of security in travelling by 



RIDING IN A DAK. 137 

dak in India. By unceasing care and frequent hammer- 
ing we at length reach the station, thus ending our second 
night's experience late in the forenoon, when we should 
have been there at daybreak. Fortunately the sky is 
cloudy, and we do not suffer greatly from the heat. 

An opportunity is afforded us at this station of seeing 
our dinner prepared. All hands — father, mother, and a 
half-dozen little Hindoos — gather to run down a chicken. 
It is an exciting chase, — cockerels and hens flying, flut- 
tering, cackling ; escaping this way, chased that, till at 
last one is captured. 

Two women seat themselves upon the ground, with a 
mill between them, grinding the rice for our cakes, just as 
eighteen hundred years ago the women of Palestine pr&- 
pared their food. The scene calls to mind the words of 
the Saviour : " Two women shall be grinding at the mill." 

A half-hour later, and we are eating stewed chicken 
and chaputies. The station agent sets' before us gliee, or 
clarified butter, but we prefer sugar on our cakes ; and 
though there is not a great variety upon the table, hungei 
has sharpened our appetites, and we make an excellent 
meal. 

While here we have an opportunity of seeing the 
mail-carts pass. They have two wheels, and are drawn 
by a span of horses that are changed every five miles. 
The steamers which sail from Bombay take all the mail- 
matter from Northern and Central India, and the mails 
are expressed from Calcutta across the country. Each 
driver carries a post-horn, which he blows constantly to 
warn people to get out of the way. He goes at a break- 
neck speed, up hill and down, the horses upon the run. 
In those sections of the country which are infested with 
tigers, a native runs before the carts, at night, bearing 
a torch to frighten them away. 

We have another night's ride before us. The driver 



138 OUR KEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

sets himself to work to make the dak last till we can 
reach the repair shop at the next station. Although the 
distance is only fifteen miles, we are several hours on the 
way, fixing the wheel, which persists in working from the 
axle. We reach the station at midnight. An extra dak 
is there ; but no persuasion can induce the Moonshee 
to permit an exchange, — we must wait while ours is re- 
paired. We do not altogether regret it, for it gives us a 
chance to see native industry. Two Hindoos do the work, 
assisted by fifteen others, who do the talking, each one 
showing how it ought to be done, pointing to this, that, 
and the other thing. We watch the trumpery repairs with 
many misgivings, and at times feel like thrusting them all 
aside and becoming blacksmith ourselves for the moment. 
But the Sahib would lower himself in their estimation. 
It will not do. 

The moon is at the full, pouring its rays from the zenith 
straight down upon us, with a power which is almost as 
unbearable as that of the sun at midday. There is no 
heat in its rays, but they have great effect upon the brain. 
The blood rushes to the head, and there is a sense of 
fulness and pressure, which, although not attended by 
acute pain, is exceedingly unpleasant. We find it neces- 
sary to keep our umbrellas spread at midnight as well as 
at midday. It is dangerous to sleep in the moonlight in 
the tropics. In this country we can see new beauty in 
those words of the Psalmist, expressive of God's care for 
those who love him : " The sun shall not smite thee by 
day, nor the moon by night." 

At one o'clock in the morning we start upon our last 
stage of forty miles, dashing down a hill with our horses 
on a run, through a valley, descending another hill, 
holding up just in season to escape a smash-up. The 
wheel is all but off the axle, and the repairs have 
amounted to nothing. The driver puts a boy on one 



BIDING ESj a DAK. 



139 



horse, sends him back to the station, throws himself upon 
the ground, and in two minutes is sound asleep. Another 
hour, and the boy comes back with the other dak. "We 
are transferred to it, but we cannot sleep. We are too 
wide awake ; the atmosphere is close, stifling, hot, and al- 
most burning to our vitals as we inhale it. On we go, 
the driver making up for lost time by lashing the horses 
into a gallop. Now we have oxen, and we go down into 
the valley of the Nerbudda Eiver, enveloped in a cloud 
of dust. 

It is daylight when we reach the stream, which, run- 
ning westward from the heart of India, discharges its 
waters into the G-ulf of Cambay. It divides India near- 
ly in the centre. 
South of it is the 
Deccan, while to 
the north is Hin- 
dostan. At this 
place it is a small 
stream during the 
dry season, but 
when the rain com- 
mences it will swell 
to a mighty flood. 

Close down to 
the water's edge, 
upon the solid 
rocks, are tomb- 
like structures, six 
or eight feet square, 
three or four in 
height, with ima- 
ges in stone not in 
the likeness of any- 
thing in heaven or protection against sunstroke. 





140 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

earth ; above them a tripod of sticks, supporting porous 
earthen dishes, from which water slowly drips upon the 
idols. 

These structures are built by wealthy natives, who pay 
an attendant $2.50 a month to keep the bottles filled with 
water. It is an act of devotion to protect the gods from 
sunstroke. 

Upon the opposite bank, beneath palm-trees, are numer- 
ous temples, — most of them small, whitewashed struc- 
tures, at a little distance presenting by their whiteness 
a pleasing contrast to the greenness of the foliage. But 
now, with a fresh team, we enter upon our last stage, — 
the horses upon the run, the driver blowing his horn ; 
everybody making haste to clear the track, for the dak 
is a privileged vehicle, and has the right of way ; so 
raising a tremendous dust, we whirl up the streets of Jub- 
bulpore, and reach the end of our journey and of our 
three nights of curious entertainment, which we would 
not have missed, but do not care to enjoy a second time. 



CHAPTEE XIY. 

IN THE HEART OF INDIA. 

JUBBULPOEE has long been a military station. The 
grounds occupied by the troops are spacious, regu- 
larly laid out, and beautifully shaded by grand old trees. 
The officers' quarters are elegantly arranged. The prem- 
ises are large, and set off with every variety of tropical 
trees, shrubs, plants, and flowers. The parade-ground 
is an immense park, level as a floor, and surrounded 
with groves. Nothing can be more delightful than to 



m THE HEAET OF INDIA. 141 

stroll down the long avenues, inhaling the fragrance of 
the flowers, hearing the crows cawing above ns, and 
myriads of sparrows and birds of the tropics chirp- 
ing and singing in the bamboo thickets, and look out 
upon a landscape dotted with palms, waving their broad 
green leaves. The band attached to the brigade plays 
every evening in the public garden, and at that hour all 
the Europeans in town — officers and their wives, sons, 
and daughters — gather in the garden for promenade. If 
Mr. Emerson were to visit India, he might perhaps find 
material enough for an additional chapter on " English 
traits." It is amusing to see the young officers, with 
enormous side whiskers, dressed in white jackets and 
pants, strutting over the parade-ground, clanking their 
swords, jingling their spurs, manifesting in every feature, 
in every glance of the eye, every movement of the body, 
the intenseness of their nationality. A surly watch-dog, 
pacing to and fro in front of his kennel, with ruffed 
mane, and conscious that he is master upon the prem- 
ises, does not manifest a greater sense of his importance 
than do these young gentlemen, a few months out from 
England. None of the ancient Moguls could surpass 
them in playing the nabob. Here and there we see one 
who has been long in the service, who has passed the 
puppy period, and become a regular old mastiff, treat- 
ing all who approach him, be they Europeans or natives, 
respectfully. 

It is quite natural that those newly arrived should 
have a high estimate of their importance. Britons have 
conquered India ; why should not they feel well under 
the circumstances ? 

A large party of men are at work upon the railroad, 
and we stroll along its line to observe this great iron 
highway. The embankments are of necessity much 
wider than those upon railroads in the United States. 



142 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

The torrents which pour from the clouds during the 
rainy season make sad havoc with earthworks, unless 
they are well constructed. All masonry must be laid 
on solid foundations, and the cement must be of a 
character to stand the extremes of dryness and moisture 
incident to the climate. Brick is mainly used, instead 
of stone, in the construction of culverts and small bridges. 
The work is done in the most thorough manner, and the 
superstructure of this and other roads is probably supe- 
rior to that of most railways in our own country. 

Jubbulpore being an important station, large buildings 
have been erected by the company. The passenger 
depot is spacious, but want of adaptation is manifest in 
the arrangement. In a country where the sun in sum- 
mer burns like a red-hot ball in the heavens, and where 
for three months in the year the rain comes down un- 
ceasingly, common sense would have erected some sort 
of shelter over the platforms of the station-houses ; but 
such protection is wholly wanting. The station-houses 
are brick buildings with solid walls, which act as radiators 
to the heat of the sun, and passengers waiting for the 
starting of the train are baked in the oven-like heat. 
It is so at all the stations between Jubbulpore and 
Allahabad, a distance of two hundred and thirty miles. 

When the road is completed down the Nerbudda to 
Bombay, Jubbulpore will be one of the principal sta- 
tions. It is in a well-watered and productive country. 
The hills bordering the valley are from two to five hun- 
dred feet high, with natural terraces along their sides, 
showing distinctly the ancient water-marks of a time 
when the river was two hundred feet above its present 
level. As we move northeast we gradually leave the 
fertile soil, gain the plateau between the Nerbudda and 
the streams which empty into the Ganges, and find a 
sterile region, destitute of wood, and supporting a sparse 
population. 



IN THE HEART OF INDIA. 143 

This section of the road passes through a province still 
held by one of the native rajahs. He has nothing par- 
ticular to do, but is kept in place by the government, 
because descended from the ancient rulers. His royalty 
is acknowledged by the English everywhere. When he 
travels it is in great state. He is saluted by the garri- 
sons. He was loyal during the mutiny, and is receiving 
his reward. 

It is amusing to see the monkeys in the groves scam- 
pering away and climbing the highest trees as the train 
dashes past them. They abound in this section of the 
country, and play the mischief with the garden-sauce 
and field products of the natives. They steal everything 
they can lay their paws on. They are as adroit in their 
thieving as the experts of the human species. A fellow- 
passenger informs us that it is impossible to travel in 
some parts of India without a native to keep constant 
watch upon everything. Were we to go out upon the 
plains and pitch a tent, or lie down to sleep, in a few 
minutes several score of these light-fingered, fleet-footed 
gentry would come to pay us their respects, forming 
a ring around the camp, sitting in solemn state, gazing 
at everything going on. They are sober gray-beards, 
harmless, innocent, sitting at respectful distance, as silent 
and grave as Indian braves around a council-fire. Grad- 
ually they draw nearer, watching to see who is asleep, 
who awake. If the coast is clear they make a sudden 
spring, seize whatever they can, and are off in a twinkling. 
They are a nuisance to cultivator and traveller. 

As we near the valley of the Ganges vegetation is 
more rank, the foliage greener, and the soil more fer- 
tile. We pass rice-fields, where men and women are 
plashing in the water, weeding the young grain. The 
country is more densely populated, and there are signs of 
increasing thrift now that the railroad has been opened. 



144 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

The full moon is just rising in the east as we come in 
sight of the Ganges, — the most sacred of all the rivers 
of the world, — looked upon by more than one hundred 
millions of the human race as the river of life. There 
are some remarkable similarities between the religious 
legends of the Hindoos and the writings of the Bible. 
We have not space to dwell upon them ; but it would not 
be a difficult matter to show from the ancient literature 
of the Hindoos, that before the rise of Brahmanism the 
people worshipped only one deity ; and there are also 
evidences to show that India has had an acquaintance 
with the religion of Jesus Christ. 

" It is generally supposed," says Marshman, in his history 
of this country, " that St. Thomas introduced Christianity 
into India, where he obtained many converts. The Hin- 
doo legends present so many points of similarity with 
the facts of the New Testament as to leave little doubt 
that the events connected with the life and death of the 
Saviour of mankind were widely disseminated through 
India, and embodied, though in a distorted form, in the 
writings of Hindoo poets and sages.'"' 

Every religion has more or less of the poetic element. 
It abounds in the Jewish, also in the Hindoo. 

" Thou visitest the earth and waterest it ; thou greatly 
enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water ; 
thou preparest them corn when thou hast so provided it." 

So sang the Hebrew poet ; were we to read the passage 
to a Hindoo, he would believe it to be a description of 
the sacred Ganges. Or read to him from the Book of Eeve- 
lation the sublime description of the river of life, and 
he would assure us that it had reference only to this 
mighty stream, rolling its everlasting flood onward to the 
sea, an emblem of the final absorption of himself into 
the bosom of Brahma. 

A few miles south of Allahabad is the junction of the 



IN THE HEART OF INDIA. 145 

Jubbulpore with the great Peninsular line of railway, 
running from Calcutta to Delhi. The train winds along 
the bank of the river till it reaches the Jumna, the main 
branch of the Ganges. It is a stream as wide- as the Con- 
necticut at Springfield, spanned by a costly iron bridge, 
supported by piers of stone. The Jumna, like the Mis- 
souri, is subject to capricious freaks, — scooping its bed 
of quicksand full of holes, cutting off a slice of land on 
one side, carrying it over to the other, running away from 
towns, and doing other truant acts. The engineers went 
down seventy feet to find firm foundations for their piers, 
without reaching solid earth. They drove piles, sunk 
iron shafts, and resorted to various expedients, and have 
reared a splendid structure ; but no one has much confi- 
dence in its permanency. It may tumble in a night dur- 
ing some great flood. The engineers on the route between 
Jubbulpore and Bombay have encountered the same diffi- 
culty on the JsTerbudda, and one expensive bridge and sev- 
eral small ones have already fallen. 

We glide into the station, — a spacious structure, con- 
taining a large restaurant and hotel ; but the landlord has 
no accommodations. 

" A great many travelling now," he says. " Cotton 
speculators are rushing like mad bulls all over the coun- 
try. People have been telegraphing for rooms all day." 

But there are public houses in the town ; so stepping 
into a shigram, we are carried through cross-streets and 
by-ways to the " Great Eastern Hotel." It is a large square 
edifice, with a wide veranda supported by tall Ionic col- 
umns, and presents an imposing appearance. 

A half-dozen Englishmen are sitting at table, in the 
centre of the great hall, drinking brandy and water. A 
tall Hindoo shows us to our room, the door of which 
is a red curtain. Partitions separate the rooms, but 
there are no ceilings overhead. We can hear much of 
7 j 



146 



OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WOKLD. 



what is going on in the other apartments, and doubtless 
our neighbors' ears are as sharp as ours, and they can 
guess whether we are splashing in the earthen bath-tub 
or breathing hard while asleep. 




RAISING THE WIND. 



A punka hangs over our bed, kept in motion through 
the night by two bronzed creatures who sit beneath our 
window, each taking turns at a rope, which runs through 
the wall. Tanned by the machine, inhaling the sweet 
fragrance of oleander, magnolia, and laburnum, we lie- 
down to rest, but not to slumber. We need no covering. 
The thinnest sheet is a burden. The couch itself could 
not be hotter even if a warming-pan filled with live coals 
were passed over it. We toss and tumble, wipe off the 
perspiration oozing from every pore, and it is not till 
the midnight breeze sweeps up the valley from the dis- 
tant sea that we are able to get a wink of sleep. 



SCENES IN ALLAHABAD. 147 



CHAPTEE XV. 

SCENES IN ALLAHABAD. 

IT is charming in the cool of the morning to ride down 
the broad shaded avennes of this chief mercantile 
city of Central India, the Ganges laving the eastern and 
the Jnmna its western border. It occupies a favored 
place in Hindoo estimation. The Ganges is the type of 
the eternal. It has flowed from the beginning of time, 
and will roll on forever. The Jumna is its mightiest 
affluent, and its wooded banks are hallowed by the loves 
of Krishna and Buddha, who once dwelt on earth, but 
who are now immortal. 

Beneath the luxuriant palm-trees of the Jumna, in bow- 
ers adorned with flowers of every hue, the fabled Naiads 
danced and sang, long before their voices were heard 
amid the Grecian groves. At every step of our journey 
in this Oriental land we meet with myths which, before 
the Pelasgi were driven from Hellas, were rehearsed amid 
these scenes. Like the odor of sweet flowers pervading 
parlor, hall, drawing-room, and chamber of a beautiful 
mansion on a gala-night, so these legends give perfume 
to literature, science, and art. The flower of ancient 
Hindoo poesy gives fragrance to every page of history. 

See how Indra has come down to us. To him one 
hundred and seventy-eight of the hymns of the Pig 
Veda are addressed. He was the god of air, — the ether, 
ethereal. He was the Zeus of the Greeks. 

" Zeus," says Max Mtiller, " was not an invention of 
Homer. Jupiter was not borrowed from Greece. Long 
before the Aryans immigrated into Greece and Italy, they 



148 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

worshipped the same god under the same name. Brah- 
mans, who migrated towards the south, invoked him along 
the river of the Punjab." * 

Modern astronomy has given this deity a place among 
the spheres, assigning him the largest planet of the 
solar system. The numerous asteroids wheeling above 
us are, some of them, only Grecian incarnations of gods, 
worshipped ages before the schoolmaster Cadmus, as Mr. 
Motley calls him, carried his writing-book from the jSTile 
to the Peloponnesus. 

Thousands of years ago Pruyag, the Moon god, lived 
here where the turbid Ganges and the sparkling Jumna 
join their waters, and the place is holy. Superstition 
has made it a spot where human beings can be purified 
from sin. All who have their heads shaved at this junc- 
tion of the rivers will secure one million years' residence 
in paradise for every hair which falls into the sacred 
waters ! Always there are pilgrims to be shaved ; but 
in the month of January, when the moon is full, a grand 
festival commences in honor of the god who once con- 
descended to live here. The fair, or mela, lasts about 
two months ; acres of ground are covered with tents, 
and the place is crowded with devotees, beggars, and 
merchants. It is therefore the greatest barber's shop in 
the world, and those who handle the razor do a thriving 
business. 

Allahabad, being situated on the tongue of land formed 
by the two streams, has always been a stronghold. The 
fort which now rears its massive walls near the town was 
a Hindoo fortress thirty centuries ago. The Moguls, when 
they came into power, strengthened it. When the late 
mutiny broke out it was the only place, except Lucknow, 
in Upper India, which did not fall into the hands of the 
rebels. " Keep Allahabad safe," was the despatch sent 

* Edinburgh Eeview, October, 1851. 



SCENES IN ALLAHABAD. 149 

from Calcutta by Sir Henry Laurence ; and it was held 
by the heroic little band against all assaults, till Neill 
came up the river with reinforcements and raised the 
siege. 

Inside the fort stands a pillar forty-two feet high, — a 
beautiful monolith, of dark granite, slightly tapering to- 
wards the top, and covered with inscriptions. Successive 
generations have gazed upon it, wondering when and by 
whom and for what purpose it was erected. It was not 
till a few years ago that the characters were deciphered ; 
but a pundit, learned in obsolete Indian literature, came 
along one day, and discovered that the writing was the 
ancient Pali, and that it was erected by the Eajah 
Asoca, almost 250 B. C. The inscription is a royal 
proclamation, prohibiting cruelty to animals, and calling 
upon the public to erect hospitals and other charitable 
institutions. In those ancient days, before the art of 
printing was discovered, princes thus promulgated their 
decrees. 

It was at Allahabad that the Greek Ambassador Me- 
gasthenes resided 300 B. C, and wrote out those accounts 
of India which have come down to us through Greek 
historians. 

This was a stronghold during Mohammedan rule, and 
the old building called the Jummah Musjeed still stands, 
a silent witness of devotion to the faith in those days. It 
was a stately mosque ; but during the late mutiny English 
soldiers ate their rations of salt-pork beneath its lofty 
dome, and made it forever vile to the followers of the 
Prophet. Strange are the contrasts of religious belief. To 
the Mohammedan pork is an abomination ; but three min- 
utes' walk from this mosque brings us to a temple where 
the Hindoos bow down to the image of the sacred hog 
Baraha, — which is the second incarnation of Vishnu, who 
rooted the world up from the bottom of the sea ! For that 



150 OUR NEW WAY EOUND THE WOELD. 

service he is greatly beloved. Men present potatoes, man- 
goes, and rice to his hogship ; women sprinkle his sacred 
head with holy water brought from the Ganges, and garland 
his snout with flowers ! So man wallows in degrada- 
tion, and blindly gropes his way to deeper darkness, when 
he once turns away from God. 

We reach the market-place, where noisy purchasers 
are chaffering with hucksters, who sit beneath wide-spread 
umbrellas as awnings, supported by bamboo sticks. Some 
of the women are tattooed with fantastic representations 
of fish, fruit, or flowers. The operation is performed 
when they are quite young. Blue, red, and yellow colors 
are used, and face, neck, arms, and body are subjected 
to the process. To us it seems a ridiculous custom ; but 
we dare say these Hindoo women, observing that we have 
our ears bored, wonder we do not also adorn our persons 
by wearing jewels in the nose, or have flowers pricked in 
India ink on our foreheads. 

Some of the mothers carry their infants on the head 
in a basket ; others bear them on the hip, the little 
bronzed creatures clinging to the shoulder of the mother 
and riding at ease. 

In the centre of the market-place is a deep well, with 
a passage leading to the water down a long flight of stone 
steps. During the late mutiny, when the garrison in the 
fort was holding out against the infuriated rebels, one of 
their leaders, in order to incite the people to insurrection, 
and influence their fanaticism, had a magic carpet spread 
over the well, upon which he seated himself, and was sus- 
tained, as the bloodthirsty fanatics believed, by the power 
of God. Such an evidence of supernatural aid was proof 
that they would win the victory, and their attacks upon 
the fort were renewed with greater ferocity. 

But Neill was on his way from Calcutta with reinforce- 
ments, and scattered the mutineers like chaff. Allaha- 



SCENES EX ALLAHABAD, 



151 




MOTHERS OF INDIA. 



bad was the first place relieved. Had it fallen before the 
arrival of Neill, far different perhaps would have been the 
state of affairs in India to-day. The valley of the Ganges 
would have been in the hands of the mutineers to the 
very suburbs of Calcutta, and the rebellion would have 
obtained such a prestige and power, that a longer and 
harder struggle would have been required on the part 
of England to subdue it. 

From the market-place we pass through a lofty gate- 
way into the Chusero Bagh, a beautiful garden laid out 
when the Moguls were in their greatest power and glory. 
The sate itself is of wood, — solid, enduring teak. It was 
erected more than two hundred and fifty years ago ; has 



152 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

withstood the burning heat of the sun, the parching winds, 
the soaking rains, through all these mutable years, yet 
the grain of the wood is firm and compact as when hewn 
from the forest. 

The garden is bounded on one side by three stone mau- 
soleums, erected by the Mohammedans several hundred 
years ago. They are spacious and lofty, with panelled 
walls, upon which are graven the virtues of two deceased 
princes and the Begum of Jehangeer, for whom they 
were erected. A square cupola, elaborately ornamented, 
surmounts the flat roof of the edifice. The interior still 
bears traces of its adornment by cunning hands when 
India was ruled by the followers of the Prophet, and 
when the crescent flag waved over every inch of territory 
between the turbid Brahmaputra and the verdant vales 
of Andalusia. 

But the Englishman is here, and cares little for relics 
of the past that do not glorify his own national history. 
He has put up his billiard-table beneath the sculptured 
roof of one of these magnificent tombs, and we hear the 
clicking of the ivory balls where the Mussulman once 
rehearsed the virtues of the deceased princes. The Eng- 
lishman intends to make this tongue of land, so sacred 
to the Hindoo, and so hallowed to the Mohammedan, 
a busy mart of traffic. The courts, now held at Agra, are 
to be held here, and it is proposed to make this the capi- 
tal of the Northwest Provinces. It will soon be the great 
railway centre of the empire. Real estate is rising, and 
men who are conversant with political affairs predict that 
ultimately the Governor-General will reside here instead 
of at Calcutta. 

The present population is about one hundred and ten 
thousand, and is rapidly increasing. The railway station, 
though spacious, is to give place to one of greater capa- 
city for storing merchandise. 



SCENES IN ALLAHABAD. 153 

But the increasing heat warns us to return to the 
hotel ; besides it is the breakfast hour. 

A Hindoo waiter, with a turban shaped like a soup- 
plate, who stands behind us at the table, says, " Amer- 
ican ice, sir ! " as he drops a lump into my tumbler. 
Looking out from the veranda to the next house we see 
a sign, " American Ice." Mr. C. L. Brown is here, 
agent of the Tudor Ice Company of Boston. He has 
been fifteen years in India. The company are extend- 
ing their operations to the interior. Heretofore the 
cities up country have been supplied by " machine ice," 
which has been used by the Europeans, but which the 
natives will not purchase. They are afraid it may con- 
tain something that will make them unclean ; but Amer- 
ican ice is pure, and they have no scruples about using 
it. Mr. Brown has orders from Jubbulpore, Agra, Luck- 
now, Delhi, and other cities along the different lines of 
railway. Travellers send letters requesting him to have a 
supply at the station on the arrival of the trains. They 
look upon it, not as a luxury merely, but as an article that 
cannot be dispensed with. In this climate it is a tonic. 
Men do not exert themselves and get overheated here 
as in the United States, and then cool off by chinking 
ice-water, which, under such circumstances, brings on 
cholera and fever; but they keep off such diseases by 
reducing the system to a lower temperature by its use. 
Mr. Brown gives the go-by to ale and brandy, the com- 
mon drinks of Englishmen ; takes ice- water freely, eats 
very little meat, but lives on rice, bathes every morning, 
and has had no sickness during the fifteen years of his 
Indian life. 

The ice in our tumbler is three years old, having been 
harvested in 1865. The most extravagant tale of the 
Orient is not more romantic than the story of this solidi- 
fied water from Wenham Lake. It is a piece of impris- 

7* 



154 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

oned cold, a fragment of a bygone winter transported by 
sea and land to tins city of Central India, to minister 
to our health and comfort. 

How romantic to think of it ! — of boyhood's rosy 
cheeks and girlhood's laughing eyes, the joining of hands, 
the swiftly flying feet sweeping the gleaming field, the 
linking of hearts for a wider curve across the stream 
of life; — a picture of happiness without a counterpart 
in the world, and as much in advance of life in this trop- 
ical land as the Sistine Madonna of Eaphael is superior 
to the figures on a Chinese tea-chest ! 

Call it rhapsody, sentiment, what you will; how can 
one help this outburst of enthusiasm with a piece of ice 
from Wenham Lake clinking in his tumbler, melting in 
his mouth, cooling his parched tongue, and bringing to his 
soul a breeze of old associations ? 

Blessed be the ice, and prosperity to the Tudor Com- 
pany ! 



CHAPTEE XYI. 

NATIVE SCHOOLS. 



ALLAHABAD being centrally situated is a conven- 
ient place for educational and missionary operations. 
English and American missionaries have been some years 
on the ground, not only preaching, but sustaining schools, 
which are exercising a beneficial influence on the com- 
munity. 

The American Presbyterian churches have two mis- 
sionaries in the city, Eev. Messrs. Owen and Walsh, 
both of whom have been here about a quarter of a cen- 
tury. We find Mr. Owen hard at work in his library on 



NATIVE SCHOOLS. 



155 



a new translation of the Bible. His time is given to 
labor of that sort and to preaching on the Sabbath. He 
had a translation nearly completed at the time of the 
breaking out of the mutiny, when his house was sacked 
all his papers destroyed, and his work of years entirely 
lost. It is very interesting to hear him recount the story 
of the mutiny, while sitting at his breakfast-table, — the 
trials of those dark days, the fidelity of the native Chris- 
tians, and to listen to his account of a recent journey to 
Thibet. An English officer last summer was ordered to 
make an exploration of the country of the Himalayas 
bordering on China, and invited Mr. Owen to accompany 
him. They went up to Delhi; to the valley of the 
Sutlej ; followed up that river ; climbed the mountains, 
over passes twenty-two thousand feet high, and reached 
the borders of Western China ; but here they were 
turned back by the authorities. 

It is a country where men pray by machinery ; some- 
times by water, but oftener by hand power. Dr. Owen 
brought down one of their prayer- wheels, which is some- 
what like a watchman's rattle, only it makes less clatter. 
It contains a strip of paper or parchment, on which 




PRAYING BY HAND. 



156 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



prayers are written. Swinging it is praying, just as the 
counting of beads in Catholic countries is devotion. More 
powerful praying machines are turned by the mountain 
streams, which weary not, but make continued supplica- 
tion day and night. Between beads and wheels, the last 
is the more ingenious, and doubtless quite as effective. 




PRAYING BY WATER. 



From this gentleman we obtain many facts in regard to 
missionary operations in India, as well as of other im- 
portant movements for the enlightenment of Hindoos. 
He informs us that the natives have a great desire to 
obtain an education. He received a letter last week 
from a native who had been educated in the mission 



NATIVE SCHOOLS. 157 

school, and who had obtained a place on the railroad. 
He had been promoted, and his salary advanced from 
$ 75 to $ 100 per month. The letter contained $ 25, and 
reads as follows : — 

" My dear old master, please accept the increase of 
my salary for one month as a thank-offering to the Lord." 

Yet this man is not a Christian. Although he does 
not worship idols, he has not embraced the Christian re- 
ligion. He has only arrived at a state of letweenity. He 
knows the benefit of an education, probably looks upon 
the Bible as superior to the Shasters ; at any rate, he gives 
a prize of one dollar per month to the scholar of the 
class who shows the most proficiency in Biblical knowl- 
edge. Caste, and the influence of friends, prevent him 
from openly committing himself to the Christian religion. 

And so with many native gentlemen. They hold the 
missionaries in high esteem, and encourage their good 
work in many ways, but they cannot wholly break away 
from their idols, and range themselves in the ranks of 
' the Christians, — forego the love of friends and neigh- 
bors, and be classed with the low and vile. 

Eiding through the native portion of the city, past 
bazaars, markets, and temples, we reach the house of 
Eev. Mr. Walsh. He came from Newburg, 1ST. Y. ; is 
hale, hearty, energetic, and has a countenance fresh and 
fair, after a quarter of a century of labor under the sun 
of India. 

The mission premises occupied by him are situated on 
the bank of the Jumna, and formerly belonged to the 
government. They comprise a church, a court-house, sev- 
eral bungalows for officers, a garden, and an extensive 
park, planted with shade-trees. The buildings cost a 
large sum of money, but some wise engineer informed 
the governor that in a few years the whole would be 
tumbled into the river ; therefore a new site was selected 
for the public offices. 



158 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

The missionaries were better acquainted with the 
eccentricities of the river, and, having confidence in its 
integrity at that particular place, purchased the entire 
estate for two thousand dollars. They can sell it now for 
fifty thousand. 

It is a charming locality, with shady lawns and wide- 
spreading trees, beneath one of which we find Rev. Mr. 
Walsh, at six o'clock in the morning, taking a cup of tea. 

" I have about four hundred boys," he says, as we pass 
across the lawn to the old court-house, " of all ages, shades, 
and castes. You will see for yourselves what they are 
and what they promise. There is such a demand for 
English-speaking natives that I cannot graduate a class. 
They are snapped up a,s soon as they can say, ' How do 
you do ? ' and ' G-ood morning.' A great many who have 
gone out from this school are getting far greater pay than 
I am." 

We reach the door of the building — a one-storied edi- 
fice, with a thatched roof — in season to see the scholars 
trooping into the large hall by classes. They rise and say, 
" Good morning." Then comes the reading of the Bible, 
and a prayer in Hindostani by Mr. Walsh ; then all 
except the first class retire. 

The first exercise is in reading, with Paradise Lost for a 
text-book. The lesson for the morning is from the Sec- 
ond Book, the • description of Chaos : — 

" Behold the throne 
Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread 
Wide on the wasteful Deep ! With him enthroned 
Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things, 
The consort of his reign ; and by them stood 
Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name 
Of Demogorgon ; Rumor next and Chance, 
And Tumult and Confusion all embroiled, 
And Discord with a thousand various mouths." 

Here is something not found in the Shasters ; yet the 



NATIVE SCHOOLS. 159 

scholars understand the meaning of the poet, and analyze 
the sentences quite as correctly as those of our normal 
schools. 

" Who are the people mentioned here, and where do 
they live ? " 

" They are not people, sir ; they are personifications." 

" Is this poem wholly a fiction ? " 

" JSTo, sir ; it is based on the Bible." 

Other questions elicit intelligent answers, as will be 
seen in their explanation of the following passage : — 

" Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned 

Charybdis, and by the other Whirlpool steered." 

We question them to learn what they know of Homer 
and the Odyssey, or of geography. 

" Who was the person here referred to ? " 
" He was one of the characters in Homer's poem." 
" Who was Homer, and where and when did he live ? " 
" He was a Greek poet, who lived more than two thou- 
sand years ago." 

" Where are the localities here mentioned ? " 
" In the Straits of Messina, which separate Sicily from 
Italy." 

Near the close of the book are these lines : — 

" This pendent "World, in bigness as a star, 
Of smallest magnitude close by the moon." 

They offer us the opportunity of inquiring what the 
pupils think of the Hindoo cosmogony, which makes the 
earth a broad, flat surface, surrounded by seas, with a great 
mountain, one hundred and twenty-two thousand miles 
high, in the distant North, around which the sun revolves, 
thus producing day and night ; the whole supported on 
the back of a great turtle. Above the earth are crystal 
spheres, where the gods dwell on green islands, surrounded 
by oceans of melted butter. To us of the West their 



160 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

terrestrial and celestial physics seem on a par with the 
description in Mother G-oose of 

" The man in the moon 

Who came down at noon 
To inquire the way to Norridge." 

One of the pupils gives, at our request, an outline of 
the Hindoo belief in regard to the structure of the Uni- 
verse. He hangs his head while speaking, as if ashamed 
of his former ignorance. Their ideas of distance and 
magnitude are limited. They never have travelled, never 
have been far from their native city. The full moon to 
them is no larger than a dinner-plate. The ninety mil- 
lion miles of space between us and the sun is an incom- 
prehensible distance ; but they have correct notions of 
the solar system, of balls whirling in space around a 
central orb. 

Noticing that one of the class has a watch, and hav- 
ing been talking about the celestial scenery, we gradually 
approach the subject of natural religion. 

" Does your watch keep good time ? " 

" Pretty good." 

" Does it lose or gain ? " 

" It gains." 

" Did you ever see one that kept exact time ? " 

" No, sir ; I don't think it possible for a man to make 
one." 

"Why not?" 

" Because of the difference of temperature at times, and 
for want of skill." 

" Does the earth revolve around the sun without any 
variation ? " 

" Yes, sir ; and so do all the planets." 

" May we infer anything from this ? " 

"Yes, sir; I think that we may infer that there is a 
God." 



NATIVE SCHOOLS. 161 

He has not studied Butler or Paley, nor any other 
author on natural religion; but it is the conclusion arrived 
at by the education he has received in the school, with 
the Bible for one of the text-books. 

It is not possible for us to fully understand the work- 
ings of their minds. They are young men, — the oldest 
perhaps twenty years of age ; many of them married, 
some of them fathers. Those not married are betrothed ; 
though who they are affianced to, where she lives, how 
she looks, whether . beautiful or ugly, they know not. 
The fathers have done all the business. They have been 
brought up to worship idols ; their parents bow down 
to Vishnu ; their sisters lay flowers on the shrine of 
Krishna ; their friends and relatives and acquaintances 
believe in those deities, perform ablutions, and attend 
festivals- They see the absurdity of their former belief, 
and are ready to laugh when Mr. Walsh holds it up to 
ridicule. 

The next exercise is on the Mind, with Abercrombie's 
Philosophy of the Moral Feelings for a text-book. The 
lesson of the morning is in regard to Testimony, the credi- 
bility of direct and circumstantial evidence. 

Upon this they are at sea. The Hindoo is wanting in 
all sense of moral obligation. His sacred book — his 
Bible — contains no code of moral laws. His priest sets 
him an example of duplicity. He never trusts his dis- 
pute with his neighbor to the arbitrament of a native 
judge, who has ever an open palm for him who will pay 
the highest fee. 

. A missionary travelling through the country protected 
himself from the noonday heat by lying in a stream ; 
while in that rather unmagisterial position the people of 
the neighboring village came with their disputes, made 
him their judge, and accepted his decisions. They have 
perfect confidence in European, but none in Hindoo jus- 



162 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

tice. They do not wish to see natives, no matter how 
learned they may be in the law, put upon the bench. 

" How would you get at the truth in a court of law ? " 
we ask. 

" We must make witnesses swear upon what they hold 
to be most sacred." 

" What would that be ? " 

" Some would swear upon the Shasters, others by the 
Ganges." 

" Do the Shasters make men better ? or does the Ganges 
make men morally responsible ? " 

" No, sir ; but whatever men believe to be sacred we 
must make them swear by." 

Another one says that we must judge of the credibility 
of the witness from his previous character ; while the 
third claims that we must judge by the general appear- 
ance of the man. 

Passing into the room occupied by the second class, we 
find them reciting in algebra, one of their number at a 
black-board solving a problem. They are boys from 
twelve to sixteen years of age. As a test of their 
ability to apply their knowledge of mathematics to prac- 
tical life, we inquire how, if they were building a house, 
they would ascertain mathematically the length of the 
rafters of the roof. The answer is given quickly and 
correctly. The Hindoos excel in mathematics, and com- 
mand high salaries as clerks and accountants. Some 
who obtained an education in this school are receiving 
a salary of twelve hundred dollars per annum. This is 
a stimulus to the native mind. Formerly it was diffi- 
cult to obtain pupils, but there is no need now of urging 
parents to send their boys to the mission schools, which 
are preferred to those established by the government, 
notwithstanding the missionaries make the Bible a text- 
book, and teach the doctrines of the Christian religion 



FROM ALLAHABAD TO BENARES. 163 

as laid down in the catechism of the Westminster 
divines. 

A journey from Bombay to this city, and our morning's 
visit to this school, gives us a broader view of the mate- 
rial and moral forces at work for the Christianization of 
India. The success of this mission is the best answer 
to all doubters of the efficiency of the means and the 
men employed in regenerating this ancient land of 
Buddha and Brahma. 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

FROM ALLAHABAD TO BENARES. 

BEFOEE turning our faces southward from Allahabad, 
down the valley of the Ganges, it will be interest- 
ing to glance at that section of India which lies north- 
ward of this city. We behold a vast plain, watered by 
the Jumna, the Ganges, and their numerous affluents. 
It widens toward the north, and -the whole of the im- 
mense area is densely populated. It has been a human 
hive for forty centuries. When the Aryans — the an- 
cestors of the Hindoos — entered the valley of the Indus, 
it was thickly inhabited, and ten centuries passed before 
they were powerful enough to obtain possession of the 
country. No portion of the globe, unless some sections 
of China may be excepted, has sustained an equal num- 
ber of human beings. 

The exceeding fertility of the soil, the industry and 
art of the people, the rich fabrics of their looms, the 
diamond mines of Golconda, made India, in bygone ages, 
renowned as the richest of all lands. It ever excited 



164 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

the cupidity of the nations. There is evidence that 
Sesostris once sent an expedition hither. Certain it is 
that the Scythians and Persians successively swooped 
down upon these treasure - fields. Alexander almost 
reached them, and probably would have done so had his 
life not been cut short at Babylon. The Mohammedans 
came, fertilized the soil afresh with blood, ruled with 
an iron hand, till their Empire crumbled through old 
age, when the English took possession of the magnifi- 
cent domain. 

To comprehend the density of population here, we may 
think of the six New England States and New York as 
containing thirty-three million inhabitants, — all of the 
people of the United States crowded into that small 
area ! Or if the present population of the Union were 
living in Illinois and Iowa, those States would not con- 
tain so many human beings as are now living on less 
territory in the Northwest Provinces of India ! 

The plain is alluvial, and would sustain a countless 
multitude if there were a constant supply of water. But 
the summers are dry, crops sometimes fail, and myriads of 
the dusky race at times have been swept away by famine. 
A canal four hundred miles in length has been excavated 
to bring water from the Himalayas, irrigation companies 
formed, and it is the intention of the government to 
establish a system of water supply, which will add im- 
measurably to the productive capacity of the soil. 

Eormerly the products of this section found their way 
to the seaboard only by tedious and uncertain trans- 
portation down the Ganges, while British goods were 
still longer on the way up the stream from Calcutta. 
The cost of freightage was so great that the inhabi- 
tants could not afford to purchase the manufactures of 
Manchester and Birmingham ; but the railroad has worked 
a wonderful change. The natives cultivate cotton, which 



FROM ALLAHABAD TO BENARES. 165 

is taken to England, wrought into calico, brought back 
again, and sold in the village whence the snowy pro- 
duct was sent away. Land and labor have advanced 
in value. Men who barely obtained a living before the 
opening of the railroad are now beginning to accumulate 
money. 

It would be interesting to visit Cawnpoor, Agra, and 
Delhi, and behold those places, made forever memorable 
by the events of twenty-five centuries, and more espe- 
cially by the mournful and heroic scenes of the late 
mutiny ; but our course is down the valley of the Ganges. 

It is past midnight when we enter the railway station 
at Mirzapoor, fifty-five miles south of Allahabad, and find 
the carriage of an English missionary awaiting us. 

At sunrise we are abroad with Eev. Mr. Lambert, rid- 
ing through that modern town, which stands on the west 
bank of the Ganges. A multitude of natives are filling 
their water-jars at the river. 

The city is one of the best points for traffic in Hindos- 
tan. The country around is very productive. About 
one sixth of all the cotton and grain of India comes from 
Mirzapoor, and the warehouses of this city supply goods 
to fifty millions of people ! A visit to these stores lets us 
into the secret of England's prosperity. In every village 
of this empire goods of British manufacture may be found. 
In every native hut something is seen which has passed 
through the hands of British workmen. The strip of cot- 
ton which the cooly wears for decency was woven in an 
English loom ; the little brass image of Krishna before 
which the Hindoo woman bows in worship came from a 
Birmingham workshop. 

The town has no ancient renown, but has grown up 
since the occupation of India by the English. The pres- 
ent population is about eighty thousand. 

A short distance out of the town is a hill upon which 



166 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

stands the temple of Kali, the goddess of murderers. 
Here, in former years, the Thugs came with their offer- 
ings, laid them at the feet of the idol, worshipped, and 
then went out to knock their victims on the head and 
tumble them into the Ganges. It is said to be the only 
temple to that goddess now standing in India. The gov- 
ernment has hunted the last Thug out of the country, 
and human life is as well protected here as in any 
other country. 

We are kindly entertained by Mr. Lambert, who is 
connected with the London Missionary Society, and who 
confirms the view already advanced, that railroads are 
breaking up caste and revolutionizing society. 

Seated in his pleasant parlor, with the punka in motion 
over our heads, he gives us valuable information in regard 
to the social life of the Hindoos. We have supposed that 
a Brahman was only defiled if brought in contact with 
those of lower caste, but they are dishonored as well. If 
a woman of the higher classes uncovers her face before 
strangers, she disgraces her husband as well as herself. 

An Englishman at Mirzapoor whose windows overlooked 
the garden of a wealthy Hindoo was ungallant enough to 
use his opera-glass one day while the wife of his neighbor 
was walking beneath the trees without her veil. The 
result was domestic discord and unutterable woe. The 
wife threw herself at the husband's feet, hiding- her head 
in shame ; and the man, with a broken heart, rushed to 
the Englishman's residence, crying, " I am forever dishon- 
ored. Everybody will laugh at me. I never shall go 
into good society again ! " 

The tyranny of caste is inconceivable till one comes in 
contact with it. If a Hindoo woman of high caste wishes 
to travel in the cars, she is taken to the station and put, 
palankeen and all, into a freight-car. 

It shows its power among the servants. There is no 



FROM ALLAHABAD TO BENARES. 167 

such thing as a general house-servant in India. One 
man sweeps, another brings water, a third blacks our 
boots, the fourth answers the door-bell. There is no 
interchange of work. Men labor in-doors, while their 
wives are cultivating the land. Women can earn, by 
hard work, four cents a day. They live mainly on rice, 
the poorest quality of which costs two and a half cents a 
pound. There cannot be much variety in their fare ; and 
at the close of December, as to wealth, they are where 
they were at the beginning of the year. On such a pit- 
tance they do well to keep soul and body together. 

Another ride of forty miles by rail brings us to the 
station of Mogul Serai, where we leave the main line. 
A branch four miles long, over a fertile plain, where 
numerous jackals are ranging through the fields, takes 
us to the Benares station, on the west bank of the 
Ganges. Stepping from the car, Ave have a view before 
us which has thrilled the souls of countless millions. 
What Jerusalem is to the Christian, Mecca to the Mo- 
hammedan, Benares is to the Hindoo, — the holiest spot on 
earth. The city is one of the oldest in the world. Twenty- 
six centuries have passed since Borne was founded ; but 
before Bomulus was heard of Benares was an ancient 
town. Long before the shepherd-boy of Bethlehem tend- 
ed his father's flocks on the Judsean hills, before Jeru- 
salem became the city of the Lord, pilgrims visited this 
sacred shrine. Komans, Greeks, Jews, Assyrians, Egyp- 
tians, with their religions, have disappeared as nations, 
but the Hindoo people still exist, numbering as many to- 
day probably as at any period of their history. Their 
religion remains, and Benares is now, as it has been from 
the earliest ages, a city of temples. 

Tall, white minarets, golden domes of mosques, and 
temples and princely palaces rise before us. At our feet 
the Ganges rolls its mighty flood. Many a pilgrim, from 



168 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

the remotest province of India, measuring his weary way, 
by prayer and penance, through months and years, be- 
holding those gleaming spires has been thrilled with joy 
unspeakable. Paradise was before him. The Ganges 
was the river of eternal life. In its flowing water the 
sinful soul would be cleansed from every stain, and in 
yonder holy city he would find everlasting peace. 

A bridge of boats crosses the river, over which we are 
taken in a carriage. Hundreds of Hindoos are bathing 
along the shore, or plunging from the boats, paying no 
attention to a swollen and disfigured corpse floating down 
the stream. The government is endeavoring to put a 
stop to the practice of throwing dead bodies into the 
Ganges ; but the river is so holy, and the custom so an- 
cient, that the police cannot wholly prevent it. 

Several elephants, in charge of their keepers, are sport- 
ing in the current, They disappear beneath the surface, 
till their masters are knee-deep in water. When in play- 
ful moods they shake them off, then pick them up as ten- 
derly as a mother her child. No animals are more fond 
of bathing. They are exceedingly serviceable in trans- 
porting artillery across the country. So tractable and 
docile are they, that when caparisoned, and on parade, at 
the word of command every animal salutes the reviewing 
officer by elevating his trunk. 

"We ascend the steep bank on the eastern side by the 
aid of a half-dozen Hindoos, who push at the carriage- 
wheels, and thrust their hands into the window for 
annas. They call us Sahib respectfully, ask beseechingly, 
and are so thankful for what they receive, that it is a 
pleasure to put the diminutive copper coin into their 
hands. Two cents will give them a good dinner. Who 
would not make men happy when it can be done at so 
cheap a rate ? 

Up a broad street, beneath palms and pepul-trees, 



FROM ALLAHABAD TO BENARES. 169 

through dust ankle deep, we ride to the Victoria Hotel, in 
the northern suburbs. It is a small, one-story building, 
with a thatched roof. The accommodations are not sump- 
tuous, for few Europeans have business at Benares, and 
there is no call for a spacious hotel. Our landlord, James 
Ebenezer, a native Christian, does his best to make us 
comfortable, sets a good table, and is very courteous. 

It will add to the interest of our visit if, before stroll- 
ing through the streets, we take a look at Benares as it 
was twenty-five centuries ago. 

In the earliest Hindoo records it is spoken of as the 
great city Kasi, supported by Shiva upon his trident. To 
him its shrines and temples are dedicated. Memphis, 
Babylon, and Mneveh were its contemporaries, but they 
have disappeared, while Kasi remains to attest the pre- 
serving power of this mighty god. Its modern name is 
derived from the Barana Eiver, an affluent of the Ganges, 
which winds past our hotel. 

The institutes of Menu were written, as is supposed, 
about 700 B. C, and in them we have an account of 
Benares. It was one of six independent kingdoms in the 
valley of the Ganges. Looking westward from our hotel, 
we see at the confluence of the Barana with the Ganges, 
the site of the fortress which in those times was the 
stronghold of the kingdom, and within which stood the 
royal palace. The writer of that ancient volume brings 
before us the assembling of the royal guards, with shining 
sabres and iron-bound war-clubs ; sentinels with scymitars 
guard the gates ; warriors with immense bows, and arrows 
six feet in length in their quivers, stand upon the tur- 
reted walls ; cavalry, armed with spears, sweep the wide 
plain ; the sovereign goes forth from his palace with 
a train of elephants, richly caparisoned, and sabres on 
their tusks, mowing down the opposing squadrons ; war- 
chariots, drawn by strong horses, dash into the ranks of 



170 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

the enemy. Such is the ancient picture of military 
array. 

Two hundred years before Plato opened his academy 
in the olive-groves of the western suburbs of Athens 
Benares was in the zenith of her literary fame. The 
streets were crowded with scholars, who flocked from 
all the East to attend the seven hundred seminaries 
of learning ! The Tamil drama, " Arichandra," pictures 
to us the wealthy mansions of the Vaisas, the shops 
and stalls, money-changers, and their heaps of gold and 
silver. 

Here Buddha taught his atheistical doctrines ; here 
Brahmans and Buddhists, learned in philosophy, held dis- 
cussions as keen as ever were heard in Athenian groves. 

From Chinese, Hindoo, and Mohammedan history we 
have accounts of this holy city, which, through the mu- 
tations of time, changes of dynasties, and commotions of 
war, has maintained in some degree its ancient splendor, 
and to-day awakens in the hearts of one hundred and 
fifty millions of the human race the most sacred asso- 
ciations. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 

THE CITY OF BENARES. 

" QAHIB, it is four o'clock!" We had given in- 
O structions to the servant at the hotel to call us at 
that early hour, and he is prompt to a minute in doing 
his duty. A half-hour later we are riding through the 
streets, accompanied by Eev. Mr. Hewlet, of the London 
Missionary Society, to take a look at the city. ISTu- 




WL 
mm 




i&^BllSH 




THE MONKEY IN HIS NATIVE JUNO'-P 



THE CITY OF BENARES. 171 

merous adjutant-cranes are in the fields and gardens and 
on the house-tops. They have long slender legs, and 
stand motionless by the hour, or cock their eyes at us 
with a knowing look. The English soldiers contrive to 
kill time by tying pieces of meat together with several 
yards of cord between. They are gobbled down by the 
birds. Then comes the tug of war, on the ground or in 
the air. They rise, one aiming for a tree, the other for 
a house-top. Up they go, pulling, fluttering, losing their 
balance, turning topsy-turvy, till a sudden jerk by one 
causes the other to disgorge his breakfast, and the first, 
not being able to carry the dangling weight, comes head- 
long to the ground. 

No Hindoo kills a bird. Myriads of sparrows chirp 
amid the shrubbery. There are kites by the thousand, 
crows by the ten thousand. With the jackals, which 
come in from the fields at night, they keep the streets 
clear of all garbage. There never is seen in an Indian 
town such filth as is common to the streets of New 
York. 

We are on our way to the monkey pagoda, where 
Hunnooman is worshipped in the form of a monkey. 
This god was an ancient warrior who, early in Indian his- 
tory, conquered Ceylon, the inhabitants of which were so 
small of stature that he compared them to monkeys. As 
the years rolled by, and his exploits were handed down 
in story and song, the people thought of him as a deity, 
and represented their ideal by a monkey. Not only at 
Benares, but throughout India, his image, in brass, wood, 
and stone, is worshipped in public temples and at family 
shrines. Because he bears an apish form, monkeys are 
kindly cared for, and the grand temple of Hunnooman 
is their favorite resort. 

Before reaching it we see the animals sitting on walls, 
grinning at us from the tops of the houses, or hanging by 



172 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



their tails from the branches of the trees. Two of them 
jump suddenly from their perch upon the wall, seize a 

melon from a tray, 
and are up again 
before the unsus- 
pecting market- 
woman whom they 
have plundered is 
aware of her loss. 
At the corners 
of streets, in gar- 
dens and shops, 
are shrines dedi- 
cated to this mon- 
key-god. 

Flower - sellers 
have set up their 
stalls by the en- 
trance to the tem- 
ple, for every wor- 
shipper is expected 
to give a flower to 
the god. He does 
not live on flowers 
alone, but accepts 
melons, squashes, cucumbers, rice, or eatables of any kind, 
which the priests take into their own quarters, after 
Hunooman has finished his repast. 

The monkeys gnash their teeth at us as we approach 
the gate. One of them opens his jaws as if to swallow 
us at a mouthful ; but a flourish of an umbrella sends 
them all scampering to a safer distance. 

Old devotees, smeared with paint, are sitting by the 
gateway. Their foreheads are streaked with red, their bod- 
ies with yellow. Their only clothing is a yard of cloth 




ON THE SLY. 



THE CITY OF BENARES. 



173 



around the body. They have cocoanut-shells in their 
hands, into which they expect you to drop money, or rice, 
or something good to eat. They are poor, half-starved 
wretches, but esteem themselves to be very holy. 

We step inside 
the gate, and find 
ourselves in a yard ■/ ■$% 
about fifty feel / l'%J;f 
square, containing 
a pagoda in the 
centre. We look 
through the open 
door and see a hid- 
eous idol, before 
which a lamp is 
burning. Two or 
three worshippers 
are there, offering 
flowers and sprink- 
ling water. One of 
them comes out, 
strikes a bell, and 
begins to walk 
round the pagoda, 
which is his man- 
ner of worship- 
ping. 

Meanwhile the monkeys are having a gay frolic, run- 
ning about the pagoda, leaping from the wall to the 
ground, from the ground to the wall, or climbing into 
the trees, the old monkeys carrying their little ones. 

Benares is so holy that the Brahmans say if an Eng- 
lishman or an American dies here, though a disbeliever in 
the Hindoo religion, he will be saved. In Hindoo liter- 
ature the city is always spoken of as a place of holiness 
and heavenly beauty. 




DISPUTED TERRITORY. 



174 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



A short ride brings us to the Ganges, at the northern 
border of the city. The river sweeps past with a ma- 
jestic tide, and the whole water front of more than three 
miles is before us. Thousands of boats of various forms 
are in view, — canoes dug from the trunks of trees, skiffs, 
sailing vessels, with pointed prows, high and wide sterns, 
and with rudders as large and unwieldy as the great 
doors of an American barn, and slender masts, bamboo 
yards, and sails of India matting. Stately stone steps 







THE SACKED STREAM. 



lead down to the brink of the river. Thousands of the 
natives, old and young, are bathing in the stream, or 
washing clothing, brass pots, and earthen pans. Mothers 
souse their babies, and scrub them with sacred mud. 
The little ones kick and scream and splash, but only by 
this thorough ablution can a child be cleansed from sin. 
Old men scour their mouths, cleanse their ears, and run 
their fingers briskly through their hair. If there is any 
efficacy in the mud and water of the Ganges, they are 
bound to get rid of all defilement. 



THE CITY OF BENARES. 175 

Taking a boat, we float, slowly down with the current, 
and have an excellent opportunity of beholding the city 
from the river. We pass the place where the bodies of 
the dead are burned. They are brought to the bank of 
the river and covered with wood. The flame is kindled 
by the chief mourner ; then the friends sit down, wait 
till the body is consumed, and gather the ashes and cast 
them into the stream, to be borne out into the ocean. So 
the spirit of the departed floats on the eternal tide, till 
absorbed forever into the self-existing Brahma. 

A river-bank is the most attractive place in the world 
for a Hindoo. Bathing is a religious rite. To erect a 
ghat, by which worshippers can reach the sacred stream, 
is a meritorious act, which the gods will remember 
and reward. Hindoos are animated by a religious zeal 
quite as fervent as that which prompts good people in 
America, and in other parts of Christendom, to erect 
churches, or establish religious institutions of any kind. 
To the people of Benares there are no places so near 
heaven as these magnificent flights of stone steps. Their 
happiest hours of life are passed here. In the early morn- 
ing they come to bathe, and offer a prayer ; and when 
the blazing sun wheels clown the west, and the shadows 
begin to lengthen, here they gather once more to gossip 
upon the events of the day ; youth, beauty, fashion, all 
alike make it a resort, and human nature manifests 
itself much the same by the flowing Ganges as by the 
seaside at Newport or Long Branch. 

Benares sets the fashion in India. Paris has no power 
here. The beauties of this old city are considered the 
queens of Hindoo society. Here may be found the rich, 
the learned, and the polite men of the nation ; here, 
better than anywhere else, can be seen the India of the 
past. 

In our course down the stream we pass numerous 



176 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

pagodas, built by wealthy men for the benefit of the 
millions of pilgrims that from time to time throng 
Benares. Grand palaces adorn the banks, erected by 
princes and rajahs, who wish to spend their last days 
near this sacred stream. One of the finest of the ghats, 
undermined by the floods, has slipped down the bank 
into the river, and others are just ready to follow, — fit 
emblem of the change which has already commenced in 
the Hindoo religion, which is being swept away by the 
mighty current of Christian civilization. 

" The time was," remarks our kind conductor, " when 
the Brahmans carried things with a high hand. When 
I first came to this city, several years ago, if a priest 
was passing through the street, and saw a Sudra advan- 
cing, he had only to clap his hands, and the trembling 
creature turned back till he reached a side street, that 
the Brahman might not be polluted by his presence 
as he passed ! And I have seen them wade into the 
water up to their necks, or throw themselves under the 
hedges, that their shadows might not contaminate the 
holy man." 

On one of the ghats we see a white bull, standing on a 
broad step, contentedly chewing his cud, lashing his sides 
with his tail, and looking down upon the multitude as if 
lord over all. Not long ago one of these sacred animals 
broke into the garden of a native Christian, and ate up 
his vegetables. The native revenged himself by split- 
ting open the skull of the intruder. Of course there 
was great commotion among the Brahmans, who were 
indignant at such an insult to Shiva. They dragged 
the Christian into court, and made complaint. 

" Who owned the bull ? " asked the judge. 

" Shiva," replied the Brahman. 

" Then let Shiva appear and make complaint," said he ; 
and there was an end of the case, but not an end of its 



THE CITY OF BENARES. 177 

influence. From that time to the present bulls and 
Brahmans, like the ghats, have been slipping down, and 
will be at the bottom by and by. 

Dismissing our boat, and ascending the steps, we reach 
the Madoo-rai-ke-dharara, a Mohammedan mosque, with 
two slender white minarets, which rise two hundred and 
twenty-five feet from the ground. Over the doorway 
leading to the interior wasps have built an enormous 
nest, and buzz about our ears as we approach. The 
mosque is not much used by worshippers now, for 
Benares is a Hindoo city, and an uncomfortable place 
for a Mussulman. The antagonism is as strong between 
the believers in Brahma and the followers of the Prophet 
as was that between the Jews and Samaritans. 

Climbing the winding stairs in one of the minarets, we 
reach the highest balcony, and look out upon one of the 
most charming views in all India. The city, with its 
vast expanse of tiled roofs, its minarets and its spires, 
and the domes of pagodas and temples, is spread out be- 
fore us. Four hundred feet below rolls the mighty flood 
of the Ganges. We can trace its winding course far 
away, through green fields, fertile meadows, and groves of 
tufted palm. In the heart of the city in the Biseswara 
pagoda, its roof of burnished gold dazzling our eyes 
with its brightness. To the Hindoo this temple is as 
dear as was the house of the Lord on Mount Moriah 
to the ancient Jews, as sacred to him as St. Peter's to 
the most devout papist entering the walls of Eome. 

Beyond the city are groves and gardens and native 
villages, with their white pagodas; and away to the 
northeast we catch the outline of the Himalayas, tower- 
ing in unapproachable grandeur. The hum of thou- 
sands of voices, the tramping of feet, and the hubbub 
of the street, rise softened to oar ears. From this bal- 
cony the muezzin calls the hour for prayer. 

8* T. 



178 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Standing here we can cast a glance into the past, and 
recall the time when the great Aurungzebe ascended the 
throne. It was in the year 1630, — that year when 
Governor Winthrop and his hardy followers were set- 
tling the little town of Boston, — that he, through 
treachery, hypocrisy, and blood, obtained the object of 
his desire. The Brahmans felt his power. Hindoo 
temples were demolished, idols overthrown, the prop- 
erty of priests confiscated, and Mohammedan mosques 
set up in the most holy places of the Hindoos. On 
this spot, close by the Ganges, one of the most sacred 
sites in the world, stood a temple dedicated to Vishnu, 
which was constantly thronged with pilgrims. Aurung- 
zebe pulled it down, and erected this mosque, whose 
lofty dome and minarets overlook every holy place in 
the city. Keenly the Brahmans felt the humiliation 
and disgrace ; and now with no little satisfaction they 
point to the last letters of the monarch, written just 
before his death, when the Mahratta power was rising 
in the West and threatening his overthrow, and say 
that Vishnu was troubling his soul. " Wherever I 
look," wrote this ambitious, unscrupulous man, " I see 
nothing but the Divinity ; I have committed numerous 
crimes, and I know not with what punishments I may be 
seized. Come what may, I have launched my vessel on 
the waves." * 

Descending and passing along narrow streets, by shops 
wdiere thousands of idols are exposed for sale, past devo- 
tees, with painted foreheads, sitting in silent meditation, 
we reach the court of the Biseswara, or the golden pagoda 
of the holy bull. Near the gateway, once glittering with 
precious stones, but now despoiled of its riches, sit sev- 
eral musicians, one with a two-stringed instrument, a 
cross between a guitar and a violin, one beating a small 

* Letters to Azim and Cambaksh. 



THE CITY OF BENARES. 179 

drum, and a third striking two small bells with little 
hammers. 

Entering the gate we find an open court, with the 
pagoda in the centre of the area. The edifice is not more 
than thirty or forty feet square ; but whatever is wanting 
in magnitude is made up in richness and beauty. The 
dome-like roof is surmounted by four tall minarets, and 
roof, minarets, and spire are overlaid with purest gold ! 

Near by stands his godship, — a great clumsy stone 
bull, — with wreaths of fresh flowers on his horns, fes- 
toons about his neck, bouquets tied to his tail or wedged 
into his nostrils. A Hindoo woman is bathing his hoofs 
and spattering his sides with water just brought from the 
Ganges. She bows before the idol, walks around it, and 
again sprinkles the water upon the senseless stone, in 
earnest devotion. 

An orchestra of eight persons occupies a balcony over- 
looking the court. Their instruments consist of a fiddle 
that must have been patterned after a crook-necked 
squash, a tambourine, and six kettle-drums ! The drum- 
mers make an intolerable amount of noise, and the vio- 
linist a faint squeak of melody. 

A few steps from the idol is a well in which the god 
once took refuge, when Benares fell into the hands of an 
enemy, and which to the Hindoo is as sacred as the bit 
of time-yellowed cotton cloth, — the last rag of the Vir- 
gin's chemise, — carefully preserved in the church of St. 
Maria Maggiore at Rome ! Here sits an old Brahman, 
with a bucket of holy water by his side, a cocoanut 
dipper in his hand filling the cups of pilgrims with 
water drawn from the sacred well, into which each pilgrim 
drops a flower. Looking into the well, we see a mass of 
withered and decaying flowers, mingled with fresh ones, 
floating in stagnant, slimy water. A green scum has 
gathered on the surface ; fungi grow on the walls ; a 



180 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

sickening odor pervades the air. We turn hastily away 
from the nauseating cesspool, while pilgrims in an end- 
less line present their cups to the old Brahman, and drink 
the filthy mess. To them it is the elixir of life, the puri- 
fier which will cleanse from all sin ! 

Going to another quarter of the court, we stand in 
the presence of the great Shiva himself, seated on his 
throne, with half-closed eyes, and expressionless coun- 
tenance, — the image of a besotted beer-drinker in the 
sleepy stage of drunkenness. Above him rises the gor- 
geous golden dome. The spot on which this temple 
stands has been his home for a hundred million years ! 
Here for nearly thirty centuries worshippers have bowed 
down to him. 

He has food without stint, — several baskets full of 
wheat, rice, and melons are placed before him, given by 
devout worshippers. The priests will clear away the 
table after Shiva has satisfied his appetite, — a happy 
expedient for providing themselves with a donation ! 

The place is thronged with women, not worshipping 
Shiva so much as the representations of Ling, which are 
numerous around the court. We may not give a descrip- 
tion in these pages of this object of worship. Some in- 
ferences may be drawn as to its character when we con- 
sider that motherhood is the great desire of the female sex 
in the East. It is as strong a passion among the women 
of India to-day as it was among the mountains of Judsea 
a little more than three thousand years ago, when a child- 
less woman bowed before the ark of the Lord at Shiloh, 
and asked for a son. 

A few steps farther along a narrow street, thronged 
with worshippers, and we are at the temple of Una 
Poorena. It is larger than the golden pagoda, less costly, 
but more imposing. This is a favorite shrine with the 
women. The idol is a female figure, with fom arms. 




EAST INDIAN PAGODA. 



THE BABOOS. 181 

A curtain hangs before it, but in courtesy to us 'Chris- 
tians it is drawn aside that we may behold the counte- 
nance of the divinity. Its robes are like those of a 
modern Hindoo lady of the upper class. Its head, neck, 
and arms glitter with jewels ; lamps are burning in front, 
and. the crowd of devotees are casting flowers before it, 
and sprinkling the shrine with water from the Granges. 
Brahmans reading the Vedas are seated beneath the sur- 
rounding balconies, with basins before them, into which 
enraptured pilgrims toss copper coins for the benefit of 
the holy men. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE BABOOS. 

WEALTHY baboos congregate at Benares, to spend 
the evening of life in a city which is so much 
nearer heaven than any other in India. Many of them 
are well educated, can speak English fluently, and are well 
informed in English literature. 

While standing in the court of the temple just de- 
scribed, we hold a conversation with a tall, dignified Hin- 
doo, who informs us that he has read the Bible and 
knows what it teaches, but he has made sure of several 
hundred thousand years of life in paradise by the good 
deeds he has done that mornino- ! 

He contends that it is not the idol that he worships, 
but the spirit which is enshrined in the image, and which 
pervades the universe. This is the belief of an intelligent 
Hindoo, but the mass of the people have no such concep- 
tions and make no such distinctions. They believe that 
the deity enters the idol only when requested by the 



182 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Brahnians. They soon weary of their gods, and are ever 
making or buying new ones. Old ones, of wood and 
stone, are kicking about the streets in all states of di- 
lapidation. We might gather second-hand gods by the 
cart-load. 

A lecture given by a native who has discarded idols, 
though he has not yet embraced Christianity, contains 
the following paragraph : — 

" The mothers themselves being uneducated, and unac- 
quainted with the mode of infant training, naturally leave 
their children in the hands of their maid-servants, whose 
iniquities, immoralities, and excesses defy description, and 
who, as a matter of course, lay in those children a foun- 
dation of all that is bad and poisonous. If the thus 
fledged young men have a city like Benares for their 
scene, it is adding fuel to the fire. Ill-starred is he who 
has his children in this holy city of Benares, where there 
is more vice and crime than has ever been named by 
man. 

" Our ideas of godhead are confined to the rooms in 
which we worship these idols ; we are saints so long as 
we are seated near these idols and are worshipping them ; 
but the moment we lose sight of them, we are the most 
abandoned profligates and sinners. We lie ; we steal ; 
we deceive ; we commit rape ; we murder all day long, 
and all night long ; and then early in the morning we 
bathe in the Ganges, whose filthy waters wash away our 
sins, and then worship our idols, who pardon us. Pre- 
posterous and absurd ! There cannot be a more conceiv- 
able folly than this. Purity of personal character is 
nothing to many of us ; the Ganges and our idols help us 
to heaven." * 

Stopping at an idol shop as we pass out of the temple, 

* Lecture before Benares Institute, by Laksh Maji Garu in 1867. 



THE BABOOS. 183 

our missionary friend asks the keeper why he sells these 
images. " I do it to get a living," is the reply. He has 
a great variety, but seeing that we are foreigners he wants 
to speculate a little. For a small brass Krishna, with the 
face and tail of a monkey, he asks $ 1.25, but will let us 
have Shiva for seventy-five cents ! At the suggestion of 
our conductor, we do not purchase, but leave that for our 
landlord, who supplies us with half a dozen at the price 
asked for the monkey-god. 

Another walk brings us to an ancient Hindoo observa- 
tory, called Man Mundil. It is not known certainly 
when or by whom it was erected, but it is supposed to 
have been the work of the celebrated Eajah Mami, a 
patron of literature, science, and art, who had fifteen 
hundred wives, — beating Solomon and Brigham Young 
in his matrimonial alliances. He had about two hundred 
and fifty children. Ascending a flight of stairs in a large 
square tower we gain the roof of an old stone building, 
where astronomical instruments are found, consisting of 
a graduated circle fifteen feet in diameter, a zodiac, me- 
ridian line, sundial, and other marks and lines which we 
cannot comprehend in the brief time allotted to our visit. 
The characters on stone are weather-worn and time- 
stained, but indicate the advancement made in astronomy 
before Galileo pointed his little telescope to the skies. 
Centuries before that astronomer, rising from the torture 
of the Inquisition, uttered his thrilling exclamation, " It 
moves ! " the astronomers of India had calculated the pre- 
cession of the equinoxes and the rotation of the earth 
upon its axes. 

From the observatory we walk through the streets to 
the shop of a silk-merchant, who received a gold medal 
at the Paris Exhibition for the excellence of his fabrics. 
We enter the establishment through a low doorway, 
ascend a narrow flight of stairs, and are ushered into a 



184 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

large room, where we are courteously received by the son 
of the proprietor, who seats us upon a divan, makes a 
profound salaam, and spreads before our wondering eyes 
fabrics of silk interwoven with the finest threads of silver 
and gold, wrought with stars, spangles, and flowers of the 
most delicate workmanship. The sight of them brings 
to mind Macaulay's glowing description of Benares, and 
its " silks, which went forth from the looms of this city to 
adorn the halls at St. James and Versailles." 

The sun is pouring clown its fiercest rays, and we 
hasten to our hotel. It is pleasant to hear the prattle of 
children's voices in the Orphans' School, issuing from the 
open windows as we pass the school-house, which stands 
on the spot where many a Hindoo has lost his life at 
the hands of the Thugs, who threw the bodies of their 
victims into a deep well, which still remains in the en- 
closure. Lying on a mattress in our darkened room, the 
punka fanning us and cooling our blood, which has been 
sent up to fever heat by the exercise of the morning, we 
review the changes which have taken place in India dur- 
ing the century. 

While our own country has been making unparalleled 
progress, India has been rising from her degradation, not 
by her own efforts, but through intercourse with Chris- 
tian nations ; although the dealings of the English with 
India have been anything but Christian. We have only 
to read the arraignment of Warren Hastings by Burke, 
or the review of his trial by Macaulay, to get a glimpse 
of the tyranny and rapacity of the East India Company 
and its servants. Perhaps it is well for the world that 
the full record of crime is never made public : if it were, 
the administration of the English in India would be one 
of the darkest pages of modern history. Yet it is morally 
certain that if England, or some other Western power, had 
not stepped in and taken possession of tins country, it 



THE BABOOS. 185 

would have been a chaos instead of an empire under a 
strong and energetic government. There was not vitality 
enough in the Hindoo people to emerge from the dark- 
ness of superstition which enveloped them. There 
never was any patriotism in the people of this country. 

" Kich as the Sanscrit is," says Baboo Chunder, the 
learned Hindoo traveller, " the vocabulary of the Brah- 
mans has no word for patriotism. The range of Sanscrit 
poetical literature extends from the simplest fable to the 
loftiest epic. But in the whole compass of that literature 
there is not one spirit-stirring war-song like Burns's 
' Bannockburn ' or Campbell's ' Battle of the Baltic' The 
Hindoos may have produced the first lawgiver in the 
world, but in their political jurisprudence there is not the 
slightest exposition of the principles on which are based 
the Magna Charta of Eight and the Habeas Corpus Act. 
The Upanishads and Dursanas have, indeed, received the 
favorable verdict of the most competent judges ; but no- 
where in their philosophy do the Brahmans inculcate the 
sentiment, ' better death than slavery.' In their history 
is found no one instance of political martyrdom, like 
Cato or Sidney. Of what good, then, will the Sanscrit 
be to help India in her social reform, in her political 
aspirations, in her efforts to keep pace with the nations 
of Europe ? The Sanscrit may improve the head, but 
will not purify the mind or purify the heart. The effects 
of the Sanscrit are best visible in a modern pundit, who 
is good only for wrangling and quoting ancient texts, but 
not for originating a new institution, or embarking in a 

new project for national progress The Sanscrit 

belongs to the age of the bow and arrow, and of travelling 
in caravans : the English belongs to the age of Arm- 
strongs, railways, and electric telegraphs." 

Unchristian as the dealings of England have been, yet 
she has laid the foundations of a new empire in the East, 



186 OUK NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

which is developing with wonderful rapidity. " What 
shall we do with it ? " is a question which erelong will 
demand the consideration of British statesmen. The pres- 
ent style of arrogance and assumption will not always 
be tolerated. An Englishman expects every Hindoo to 
make a respectful salaam as he passes. We have been 
astonished to see everybody bowing to us on the streets, 
but upon inquiry find that such homage is exacted by 
the English. A rich native merchant from Calcutta 
narrowly escaped a horsewhipping lately, because he did 
not stop his carriage and make obeisance to an officer 
of the army who was riding along the same road. Men 
whose names are good at the counters of the Bank of 
England for millions of dollars, who are learned in a 
half-dozen languages, who can read the Eig Veda, or 
Shakespeare, Racine, Humboldt, Cicero, and Homer in 
the original, must take the wall, and bow in humble 
suppliance to the merest stripling of an ensign with 
epaulets on his shoulders ! It will not always be so. 
Seventy thousand Englishmen in the country will not 
forever administer law to one hundred and eighty mil- 
lions of people. Christian civilization will infuse new 
blood into these ancient Aryans. The time is not far dis- 
tant when natives will have a voice in the government. 
With each year there will be modifications in the laws 
to suit the advancing wants of the people. Since the 
East India Company has passed away the laws have 
been more justly administered. Officials can no longer 
plunder as before, but are held by the home government 
to strict accountability. But though wrong has been 
done by unscrupulous men in power, yet no one in read- 
ing the history of India can come to any other con- 
clusion than this, that through all the past the country 
never has been so well governed as at the present time. 
Our reflections are interrupted by the beating of a 



THE BABOOS. 187 

drum under our windows, and looking out we behold two 
natives making low salaams. They are snake-charmers. 
The tallest, a fellow with thin cheeks and sparkling eyes, 
has a boa-constrictor, almost ten feet in length, coiled 
around his neck. The head of the boa appears above 
that of the charmer, and his snakeship looks at us with 
flashing eyes, squirming, twisting into the shape of a 
corkscrew, unwinding himself slowly, and sliding to the 
ground. Upon each arm is coiled a snake of a different 
species, — one of a greenish hue, which glides to the 
ground, wriggles between the man's legs, and advances to 
make our acquaintance, but turns back again at the voice 
of his master, who puts down an earthen jar, from which 
two cobras raise their hooded heads and hiss at us. At 
a whisper they creep out of the vessel, wind themselves 
up in coils, quicker than any old salt could lay up a 
rope, and work themselves into a fierce rage under the 
tormentings of the showman. The other native has an 
earthen vessel full of scorpions. He takes them up as 
fearlessly as a crab-catcher or lobsterman the spoil taken 
in their nets. They cling to his fingers and creep over 
his arms. He hangs them on his ears, plays all sorts of 
pranks with them. They are as tractable as trained mice. 

It is not a pleasing sight, and we care not for its repeti- 
tion. We toss the charmers a few annas ; they make 
low obeisances, gather up their scorpions, wind up their 
snakes and disappear. 

A short walk from our hotel brings us to the Barana 
Eiver, and crossing it to the northern bank we are upon 
the site of the ancient city of Sarnath. Quite likely many 
who read these lines never before heard that such a city 
ever existed, but here it stood. Though its walls, its 
palaces, its convents and schools have disappeared, the 
world still feels its power. It may be questioned wheth- 
er Memphis, Babylon, Nineveh, Athens, or Eome h&v& 



188 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

sent forth influences affecting the welfare of the human 
race that have been so widespread as those emanating 
from this city, nothing of which remains except here and 
there a crumbling ruin. 

Somewhere near the time when Esther was queen of 
Persia, and Mordecai prime minister of that realm, a 
prince named Gautama, who lived in Nepaul, at the foot 
of the Himalaya Mountains, became tired of the vani- 
ties of the world, and determined to live a life of strict 
seclusion. His father opposed it, but the young man left 
his wife and family, eluded the vigilance of the guards 
which had been placed over him, and in the darkness 
of night fled to an old Brahman. He studied under 
various teachers, passing from this to that sect, but only 
to be dissatisfied with them all. He rejected the Brah- 
manical religion, and established one of his own, teach- 
ing it here at Sarnath. It was a system of religion an- 
tagonistic to that taught by the Brahmans. He would 
have no caste, no sacrifice of blood : there should be 
no destruction of animal life. Man did not give life : 
he had no right to take it. Mosquitoes might bite, bees 
sting, parasites swarm, pests innumerable multiply : they 
must be borne. He taught strict morality. To get rid 
of sin, all natural affections must be subdued ; and holi- 
ness could only be secured by taking the monastic vow, 
and living retired from the world. The new religion 
gained adherents. The people were weary of their priests. 
Thousands flocked to the sage, who taught the new way 
of life beneath the shady groves along the banks of the 
Barana. Benares, the holy city of the Brahmans, was 
near by, and here the old theologies were discussed with 
intensest bitterness. Not only here, but in other places, 
Gautama taught his doctrines, and at his death his teeth 
and bones were distributed throughout India as holy 
relics. For more than one thousand years the religion 







BUDDHIST TEMPLE. 




THE BAJJOOS. 189 

taught by Gautama Buddha was in the ascendant. Count- 
less millions embraced it. It was the prevailing relig- 
ion of India in the time of Christ. When the fame of 
the Christian religion, at the close of the first century, 
had reached China, the Emperor Ming-ti sent commis- 
sioners to the West to ascertain its merits. They came to 
Sarnath, and supposing that they had found that which 
they were searching for, carried the religion of Gautama 
to their native land. 

The Brahmans were too powerful to be put down by 
the new religion. Theirs was aggressive. They lighted 
the torch of civil war. The great city of Sarnath, with 
its temples, its colleges, and its hospitals for pigs, mon- 
keys, chickens, donkeys, rats, and mice, was swept out of 
existence. In the eleventh century a rajah came into 
power in this section of India who was a strong believer 
in the old religion, and the Brahmans determined to em- 
brace the opportunity to revive their ancient faith. Be- 
nares, on the south side of the Barana, was the centre of 
the old orthodoxy, while Sarnath, on the north bank, was 
the chief city of the Buddhists. Taking arms suddenly, 
the Brahmanical party attacked their neighbors with fire 
and sword, applied the torch to every building, slaugh- 
tered the surprised, frightened, unresisting multitude, and 
wiped the plague-spot from the face of the earth. From 
Sarnath the war extended to other Buddhist cities. The 
persecution was fierce. Temples were destroyed, idols 
broken, convents given to the flames, priests killed, and 
the land purged of the heresy. Nothing is left, except 
here and there a mound, to tell where Sarnath stood.. 
When the present bridge was erected over the Barana, the 
ruins of the old city served for foundations to the piers ; 
and tons of idols, worshipped through those distant years, 
are beneath our feet as we stand upon the structure and 
gaze upon the site of the ancient city. 



190 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



CHAPTEK XX. 

DOWN THE VALLEY OF THE GANGES. 

'ENG-AL occupies the Lower Ganges country. In 
going southward from Benares we come upon a 
population vastly different from that of Central and 
Northern India. In form and feature, in moral and 
intellectual qualities, the Hindoos are superior to the 
Bengalese. Macaulay has given in strong colors a pic- 
ture of a native of Bengal : — 

" The physical organization of the Bengalee is feeble 
even to effeminacy. He lives in a constant vapor-bath. 
His pursuits are sedentary, his limbs delicate, his move- 
ments languid. During many years he has been tram- 
pled upon by men of bolder and more hardy breeds. 
Courage, independence, veracity, are qualities to which 
his constitution and his situation are equally unfavorable. 
His mind bears a singular analogy to his body. It is 
weak even to helplessness for purposes of manly resist- 
ance ; but its suppleness and its tact move the children of 
sterner climates to admiration, not unmingled with con- 
tempt. All those arts which are the natural defence of the 
weak are more familiar with this subtle race than to 
the Ionian of the times of Juvenal, or to the Jew of the 
Dark Ages. What the horns are to the buffalo, what the 
paw is to the tiger, what the sting is to the bee, what 
beauty, according to the old Greek song, is to woman, 
deceit is to the Bengalee. Large promises, smooth ex- 
cuses, elaborate tissues of circumstantial falsehood, chica- 
nery, perjury, forgery, are the weapons, offensive and de- 
fensive, of the people of the Lower Ganges. All those 



DOWN THE VALLEY OF THE GANGES. 191 

millions do not furnish one sepoy to the armies of the 
company. But as usurers, money-changers, or sharp legal 
practitioners, no class of human beings can bear any com- 
parison with them." 

The Bengalese occupy the valley, but the hills which 
rise on our rio-ht as we travel southeast are inhabited 
by an entirely different people, the Santhals. They are 
descendants of the hill tribes, which lived in the coun- 
try when the Aryans came down from the region of the 
Caspian and settled in the valley of the Indus. Physi- 
cally, morally, and socially they are unlike the Bengalese 
and Hindoos. Their religion, though it has been in- 
fluenced by contact with Brahmanism and Buddhism, 
has not been affected by that of Mahomet. 

Baboo Chunder has pictured the Santhal in colors al- 
most as brilliant as those with which the master-hand of 
the great English essayist has those of the j Bengalese. 

"Naked, snake-eating, and unlettered as he is, the 
Santhal has a code of honor and morality. He is dis- 
tinguished for nothing so much as his truthfulness. The 
civilized man hates lying, but the pure-minded and 
straightforward Santhal knows no lying. He is no 
more truth-loving than he is inoffensive, grateful, and 
hospitable. The virtues of the untaught savage are few 
but genuine. His religion is pure and unsophisticated. 
No atheistical doubts ever come across his mind. He 
professes no doctrinal creed. His faith, founded on the 
monitions of conscience, is ■ as unostentatious and sincere 
as is the faith of a child in his Creator." 

The Santhal women do not veil their faces, but are 
quite as fond of jewelry as their neighbors the Hindoos 
and Bengalese. An English officer once weighed the 
ornaments worn by a Santhal belle ; she had thirty-four 
pounds of bracelets, anklets, bangles, rings, and chains 
about her person. Almost every woman in comfortable 



192 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

circumstances carries at least twelve pounds of orna- 
ments. 

Like all aboriginal races, the Santhals deteriorate when 
brought into intercourse with Europeans. They copy the 
vices, but not the virtues, of modern civilization. 

We pass Moorshedabad, not much of a place at the 
present time, but half a century ago one of the most im- 
portant towns in the valley of the Ganges. It was the 
capital of the Mohammedan rajahs. Here stood the mag- 
nificent palace of Suraja Dowla, whose name is closely 
interwoven with the history of India by his atrocious 
treatment of his own people, as well as by the horrors 
of the Black-Hole of Calcutta, which the eloquence of 
Burke and the rhetoric of Macaulay have so vividly 
painted. Cruelty was a pleasure to him. He delighted 
to see a boat filled with men and women overturned in 
the Ganges. The dying struggles of the drowning was 
pleasing to his eyes, their shrieks for help the sweetest 
music to his ears ! It was equally a pleasure to walk 
through the streets with a drawn sword, splitting open 
the heads of those who did not render him sufficient hom- 
age. Not daring to trust himself to a guard of his own 
sex, he filled his palace with Amazons from Tartary and 
Abyssinia. 

He scraped the wealth of Bengal into his coffers. It 
was in this palace that Clive stood amazed amid the glit- 
tering heaps of gold and silver, diamonds and precious 
stones. He took forty million dollars for the East India 
Company, and between one and two millions for himself, 
and afterwards expressed astonishment at his moderation ! 

It was here, too, that another Mohammedan ruler, 
Cooley Khan, took vengeance on tenants who did not 
pay their rent by putting live cats into their breeches ! 

The railway from Benares to Patna, following the bank 
of the Ganges, runs due east one hundred and thirty- one 



DOWN THE VALLEY OF THE GANGES. 193 

miles through the opium district. When the poppies are 
in full bloom, travelling by rail in the Patna district is 
like riding through a flower-garden. The warehouses 
where the opium is stored are at Bankipore, six miles 
from Patna. The cultivation of the poppy and sale of 
the drug is wholly in the hands of the government, which 
derives one twelfth of its revenue from the traffic. 

We are on an express-train, which stops only for wood 
and water, and at the principal stations. As we are 
whirled along we look eastward towards the field of Plas- 
sey, which has been classed as one of the turning-points 
in the world's history. The battle, which was only a 
smart skirmish, took place in 1756. Clive halted the 
morning before at the town of Cutwa, and it is there, 
rather than at Plassey, that the turning-point should be 
fixed. He had but a handful of men, — three thousand 
in all, — and of these only one thousand were English. 
Suraja Dowla was on the opposite side of the river with 
forty thousand infantry, fifty pieces of heavy artillery, 
drawn by oxen and elephants, and fifteen thousand cav- 
alry. Should he fight or retreat ? Clive called a council 
of his officers ; the majority decided not to fight, and he 
gave his own vote against moving on. The officers went 
to their quarters, while Clive walked out, sat down in a 
grove and reflected an hour. Within those sixty minutes 
lay the future of India, — the prestige and power of the 
British nation, the welfare of nearly two hundred millions 
of the human race. His dauntless spirit, which for a 
moment had quailed before the tremendous responsibility, 
asserted its supremacy once more. His decision not to 
fight was reversed, and he returned to his tent with proud 
step and determined purpose. The little army crossed 
the river ; the Thirty-ninth Eegiment, its soul and centre, 
fought the battle, won the victory. The magnificent do- 
main of India, — a grand empire, — a vast and valuable 

9 M 



194 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WOELD. 

appendage to the British crown, the advancement of civ- 
ilization and Christianity throughout the benighted re- 
gion, every hope of the present, all the possibilities of 
the future, hung on the decision of that one controlling 
mind ! 

" If I had taken the advice of the council," said Clive, 
" the British would never have been masters of Bengal/' 

During our ride of more than five hundred miles we 
have opportunities of seeing the contempt with which 
the Hindoos sometimes regard a drunken Englishman. 
In the compartment adjoining our own one of the lordly 
race attracts attention by drinking brandy, abusing the 
native attendants, staggering in and out of the carriage 
at the stations, and cursing all around him. 

At the stopping-places are natives in uniform whose 
duty it is to see that the passengers are all aboard before 
the train starts. It recpiires a good deal of gentle per- 
suasion on their part to get him into his compartment. 
Any use of force would subject them to kicks and blows 
from this rum-crazed Briton. We can see their lips curl 
with scorn as they close the carriage door, and turn the 
key in the lock. Is it strange that the " heathen " are 
slow to accept the teachings of missionaries sent out by 
England to convert them to Christianity ? This besotted 
representative of Western civilization, after stretching 
himself upon the seat in the carriage, tumbles headlong 
upon the floor, makes two or three ineffectual attempts to 
get up, mumbles a curse, drops off to sleep, and snores all 
the way from Burdwan to Calcutta. 



OUR FIEST NIGHT IN CALCUTTA. 195 

CHAPTER XXI. 

OUR FIRST NIGHT IN CALCUTTA. 

THE sun is setting when the train enters the sta- 
tion, opposite the city of Calcutta. A glance at 
the freight-house as we pass along the platform reveals 
immense piles of cotton, in bales, waiting shipment to 
England, and pyramids of freight ready for transportation 
to the interior. Vessels are at anchor in the Hoogly, 
discharging or taking in cargoes ; steam-tugs are breast- 
ing the current with newly arrived ships in tow ; take 
it all in all, it is a lively spectacle. 

A steam ferry plies between the railway station and 
the city, which is on the east bank of the river. Shi- 
grams are at the landing, the coachmen wearing immense 
turbans, and as wide-awake for passengers as hackmen 
in American cities. 

While at Allahabad, we made the acquaintance of Miss 
Britton of New York, in charge of the American Mission 
Home in Calcutta, and whose pleasant company has be- 
guiled the hours of our passage hither. The kindest hos- 
pitality awaits us. 

A bath is the first necessity. How delicious to stand 
in the great earthen basin up to our knees in water, 
dashing it over us by the bucketful ! But our pleasure 
has a sudden interruption. While in the ecstasy of enjoy- 
ment the bath-tub breaks asunder, the little sea of water 
is let loose, the premises overflowed, and there is a 

" Wreck of matter and crush of worlds " 

as we come down upon the broken pottery 1 . 
Mem. — Don't use earthen bath-tubs. 



196 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



We hear the blaring of trumpets, beating of drums, 
crashing of gongs, squeaking of flageolets, and scraping of 
violins in the street. Stepping out upon the veranda, we 
witness an approaching wedding procession. Colored 








WEDDING PROCESSION. 



lights flare in the darkness and illume the surrounding 
scenery. Following the torch-bearers are the musicians, 
the trumpeters blowing their loudest blasts, the gongs 
and drums thundering a deafening din, while no cater- 
wauling can surpass the screeching of flageolets and 
violins. 

The bridegroom is rich, His marriage is the great 
event of life, and he makes it a magnificent affair. His 
friends ride in a triumphal car in the shape of a peacock, 
the sacred bird of India, the favorite of the gods. It is 
drawn by milk-white oxen, such as in ancient times were 



OUR FIRST NIGHT IN CALCUTTA. 197 

sacrificed to Indra. The young men within the chariot 
wear costly robes, ornaments of gold, diamonds, and pre- 
vious stones. They carry flags and banners, and toss 
bonbons to the admiring crowd. 

Following the car are boys in crimson tunics and 
gold-banded turbans, walking beneath purple canopies 
A company of men bear a platform on their shoulders, 
upon which the bridegroom is seated in a golden chair. 
Two pages stand by his side. A gorgeous pagoda, its 
golden roof spangled with silver stars, shelters him from 
the evening air. His robe and turban are of cloth-of- 
gold. An embroidered mantle of finest silk is flung over 
his shoulders ; a crimson sash, a massive gold chain, and 
a necklace of pearls adorn his person. 

He is on his way to the house of his bride, whom he 
has never seen. She is only eleven or twelve years old, 
— a child who knows nothing of life, and who has no 
acquaintance with the world. Her conception of its 
magnitude is limited to the little she has seen in Cal- 
cutta, or what she may have learned from her few ac- 
quaintances. When the feasting at her father's is ended 
she will go to the house of her husband, and the world 
will hardly know of her existence from that hour till 
her body is borne to the river-side, covered with blazing- 
fagots, and her ashes cast upon the tide. 

The work which the American and English women of 
the Mission Home have undertaken to do is the eleva- 
tion of their sex in India. They have left friends and all 
that is dear to raise the degraded by planting the cross in 
this heathen land. 

" Missionaries are humbugs," said a red-faced, beef-eat. 
ing surgeon of the Indian army on board the steamer from 
■Suez ; " India would be much better off without them." 

" The missionaries have not accomplished much : the 
money sent out for their support is all thrown away," 



198 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

said another surgeon, for there were several among the 
passengers. 

" There are some very fine men and women among 
them/' said the captain of the steamer, " and they have 
done a great deal of good." 

Facts and figures are better than opinions and preju- 
dices. The census returns give the number of native 
Christians connected with Protestant churches in India 
and Burmah at about two hundred thousand, — the re- 
sult of missionary effort. That is only one feature, for it 
does not give the great number of children acquiring an 
education in missionary schools, which are acknowledged 
to be far superior to those established by the government. 
No census can give the facts in regard to the moral in- 
fluence which has gone out from these schools, but it is 
so great that army officers cannot now, as in former times, 
have Nautch-girls to dance for them, except in those dis- 
tricts where there are no missionaries. 

The time was when there were no European women in 
India, and officers and soldiers, from Lord Clive down to 
the buglers of the regiments, had native mistresses. All 
Englishmen were Christians in the estimation of Hindoos ; 
they were beef-eaters ; drank strong drink, and a great 
deal of it. Beef-eating is an abomination to the worship- 
pers of sacred bulls ; and, according to the Shasters, hard 
drinkers will find it difficult to enter paradise. Hindoo 
artists pictured a Christian as an Englishman seated at a 
table eating roast-beef and drinking brandy, or with a 
Nautch-girl on his knees. 

The missionaries came upon the moral battle-field op- 
posed by idolatry, ignorance, degradation, hatred of the 
English name, and these false, distorted notions of Chris- 
tianity on the part of the natives ; also the hostility of a 
large portion of the English army, rank and file, especially 
the rank. But there were some godly men in the army., 
and all honor to them for their example and influence. 




AN EAST INDIAN BAYADERE. 



-i-S 



OUR FIRST NIGHT IN CALCUTTA. 199 

One of the most painful contrasts which forces itself 
upon us is that between the condition of woman in 
America and India. Caste here holds them in its un- 
relenting grasp with all the concentrated despotism of 
the ages. Woman cannot rise. The immobility of the 
Hindoos, their slowness to feel the tides of time, to be 
moved by the mighty pulsations of this century, though 
in contact with the progressive spirit of the times, is 
comprehended in this one sentence : " As our fathers did,, 
so do we." 

To comprehend the condition of the highest classes ot 
Hindoo women, look for a moment at native society, — 
to the baboos, or wealthy princes and merchants, men 
worth from $100,000 to $1,000,000. They speak 
English as well as Bengali and Hindustani. We find 
many of the new books published in England in their 
houses. Opening the daily papers of Calcutta, we read 
that Baboo Jodoonath Ghose is to give a lecture on the 
wants of India, or that Baboo Dooga Chuen Law offers to 
give $ 25,000 to the Hoogly College to found scholar- 
ships, the nominations to remain in the hands of himself 
and his descendants. The baboos are exceedingly anxious- 
to have their sons educated, not in Bengali alone, but in 
English. 

Upon their book-shelves such works as Beeton's Uni- 
versal Knowledge, Euclid, Algebra, and Blackstone, Se- 
lections from the British poets, Cowper's Poems, and 
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary may be found, besides- 
newspapers and magazines. 

Education has made great progress among the natives. 
There are several newspapers published in Bengali, ^which 
discuss the questions of the day with ability, — with as; 
much vigor of thought as their English contemporaries. 
The Dacca Prokash in a recent number objects to the 
plan of establishing a University for Bengali vernacular,. 



200 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

because suitable books cannot be obtained, the native can- 
uot acquire a superior education in an institution where 
English is not taught, and because the natives preferred 
to study English. 

The discussion of English politics is intelligent and 
creditable. We might make this plain by quotations 
from the Bigyapunee and also the Grambarta. These 
papers are published in the Bengali language. In Hin- 
dustani there is the Ukbar Alun. A recent number has 
an excellent editorial on the advantages of travelling, 
showing that the Hindoos stay at home in the women's 
apartments when they ought to be abroad informing their 
minds by seeing the world. Men who have thus moved 
up are beginning to feel that they stand alone. Their 
wives are where the women of India have been ever since 
the jolly god Krishna broke the hearts of the milkmaids, 
and turned the whole female sex to himself. 

To comprehend domestic life among the Hindoos, let 
us take a look at one of their homes. The family is pa- 
triarchal. The father is the head ; his sons, one after 
another, marry and bring home their wives. The women 
of the household mingle freely together, but the brothers 
never see each other's wives. Six or eight families, and 
three or four generations, are sometimes gathered under 
one roof. When the house becomes thus over-populous, 
the patriarch of the household has quite as much as he 
can attend to in settling family disputes. Think of the 
life of these women. They are ignorant ; they know not 
a letter of their language. Why should a woman learn 
to read ? AVhat good would come of it ? They cannot 
go upon the street. If they visit a neighbor, it must be 
in a close palankeen, their faces veiled. They know noth- 
ing except family gossip. They cannot do the plainest 
sewing. The little tow-head on the lowest seat of an 
infant school in America, sewing patchwork, can use the 



OUR FIRST NIGHT IN CALCUTTA. 201 

needle more deftly than most of the wives of these mil- 
lionnaire baboos. 

A Hindoo girl is affianced by her parents at the age of 
four or five, and is usually married at twelve. Being 
a wife, she is shut up for the rest of her days with noth- 
ing to do. She has no knitting, no embroidery, no needle- 
work ; is surrounded with books, yet not knowing how 
to read. Her room is a blank wall ; her only duties are 
the performance of the daily poojas, — worship of a little 
brass or stone image in the form of a monkey, or a figure 
with six arms and four faces ; hanging flowers round its 
neck, sprinkling it with water, bowing before it, walking 
round it, talking to it as little girls talk to their dolls, 
lighting wax -tapers ; nothing but this, except to dandle 
her children, bring food to the husband, eat her own, and 
rearrange the folds of clo.th which serve for a garment ; 
doing this and sleeping the rest of the time, from morning 
till night, from night till morning, through the twenty- 
four hours, the weeks, the months, the years, from child- 
hood to old age ! Such is the unvarying life of the wo- 
men of the upper classes. 

Hindoos who read the Eig Veda, Macbeth, Faust, the 
Inferno, Orations of Cicero, and the Odyssey in their 
original languages are beginning to feel that there is an 
awkward gap in their system of life. The Hindoo upper 
classes are too intellectual to be grossly sensual. They 
are not polygamists, are fond of their wives, treat them 
with respect, and love their children, especially -if they 
are sons. But there is no Eve in their Eden. They 
come home from the counting-house when the day's work 
is ended, read a play from Shakespeare, an article from 
Blackwood, or Longfellow's last poem, and then arises the 
painful reflection that, so far as this is concerned, his wife 
is an idiot ! 

Many of the baboos are now anxious to have then 
9* 



202 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

wives instructed ; but the women, knowing nothing of the 
sweets of knowledge, as a rule manifest but little desire 
to obtain an education. Yet they have a strong desire 
to learn embroidery, and those who have undertaken to 
raise them from their degradation have seized upon it, 
and are using it to great advantage. 

Mothers make a nation ; and among a people where filial 
affection is one of the cardinal virtues the apothegm is 
of mighty import, and may be turned to great account. 
The Hindoos are an affectionate race, and the children 
show great respect to their parents. But these women 
can only be reached by their own sex. Caste and cus- 
tom are in the way, and will not permit a woman to show 
her face to any man other than her husband. 

Two years ago Dr. Valentine, physician and missionary 
of the Scotch Free Church, was travelling through the 
territory of the Eajah of Jeypore, one of the up-country 
provinces ; the Eajah's wife being sick, he sent for the 
Doctor, but the fair patient would only permit him to see 
the tip of her tongue through a hole in a screen, and to 
put his fingers on her pulse ! The woman would have 
preferred death rather than that he should have seen her 
face. But she recovered her health under the Doctor's 
treatment ; and the Bajah was so grateful that he would 
not hear of his going away, offered him $ 3,000 a year 
if he would stay in his territory, told him that he might 
preach the Gospel when and where he pleased, — condi- 
tions which were accepted. 

The operations of the American Union Mission have 
been attended with success. The Association has eleven 
ladies employed, who, besides their direct labors, have the 
supervision of thirty-five native teachers, who have about 
eight hundred women of the higher classes under in- 
struction. They do not go to every house, but five or 
six women of a neighborhood meet in the house of one 



OUR FIRST NIGHT IN CALCUTTA. 203 

of the baboos, and receive instruction in plain sewing 
and in reading and writing, — some in English, and all 
in Bengali. 

Miss Britton, the energetic head of the mission, was for- 
merly on the west coast of Africa. She gave her strength 
and patriotism to help on the war in one of the hospitals 
during the late Eebellion in America, and now is here 
laboring to raise the women of India from their fallen 
condition. 

In one of the lower rooms we see a dozen or more 
native women, Christians, receiving instruction, — some 
studying the large maps on the walls, others with slates. 
They all learn needle-work of some kind. They are pre- 
paring themselves for teachers, and soon will be instruct- 
ors in the baboos' houses. The women gone, a class of 
girls come in. 

We talk with a pundit, an outcast, because he has re- 
jected idol-worship. His wife has been taken away by 
her friends ; he cannot enter the houses of his old ac- 
quaintances ; every door is shut against him, every face 
averted, no hand gives him welcome. He is morally a 
leper, unclean in the sight of those to whom he was 
once most dear. His wife was five years old when she 
became his bride. She is now thirteen, and he twenty. 
The marriage was planned, as all Hindoo marriages are, 
by the parents, and the parties had no choice but to obey. 

He has determined to make an effort to see his wife. 
He believes that she is not averse to living with him, 
but is kept away by her parents. If such be the case, 
he intends to test the matter in the courts, and see 
whether the arm of the law is not strong enough to break 
down this barrier of caste. 

After breakfast the teachers start for their day's work. 
They are welcome everywhere. Entering the houses 
where the women assemble for instruction, the only chair 1 



204 OUR NEW WAY EOUND THE WORLD. 

of the apartment is given to the teacher. Her class sit 
at her feet, — children in mind, though adults in body, 
and immeasurably behind the lowest class in a girls' 
grammar school in America. Their chief desire is to 
learn embroidery ; but the rule is imperative that they 
must first learn the alphabet, then easy reading, then 
plain sewing, and so on step by step. Some give up, dis- 
couraged, in three weeks, but most persevere till able to 
read fluently in their own language. So from house to 
house go these indefatigable teachers, — the mercury at 
90°, — energy oozing from every pore. 

Theirs is a great work. Educate the women of India, 
and we withdraw two hundred millions from gross idola- 
try. This mighty moral leverage attained, the whole 
substratum of society will be raised to a higher level. 
The mothers of America fought the late war through to 
its glorious end. They sustained the army by their labor, 
their sympathy, their heroic devotion. The mothers of 
India are keeping the idols on their pedestals. For 
twenty-five hundred years the Brahmans have kept the 
land in darkness, but these devoted women of the United 
States and England have got into the zenanas, and the 
days of the Brahmans are numbered. Their Christian 
work commends itself to the people of America. It is 
one of the great enterprises of the day, and productive 
of immediate results. 




EAST INDIAN KIOSQUE. 



MISSIONARY OPERATIONS. 205 



CHAPTEE XXII. 

MISSIONARY OPERATIONS. 

IN" surveying missionary operations, we must not un- 
derrate the difficulties which have been encountered. 
To reach all of the one hundred and eighty millions of 
this country, the Bible must be translated into many dif- 
ferent tongues. Dr. McLeod, who was sent out by the 
Church of Scotland to visit the missions of British India, 
says : — 

" This vast country is occupied by various races, from 
the most savage to the most cultivated, having various re- 
ligious beliefs, and speaking languages which differ from 
each other as much as Gaelic does from Italian, most of 
them broken up by dialects so numerous as practically to 
form probably twenty separate languages." 

But a greater obstacle still in the way of reform is the 
strong hold their religious opinions and practices have 
upon them. Theirs is a very ancient religion. For 
nearly a hundred generations the Hindoo has laved in 
the sacred waters of the Krishna and the Ganges, and 
offered his oblations to images which to him are symbols 
of deity. Their sacred books, their traditions, all their 
habits, their joys, their sorrows, whatever is dear to them 
in life or hopeful to them in death, bind them down to 
idolatry. 

We should not be surprised at their aversion to a 
religion which sweeps away caste, overthrows idols, 
subverts the whole order of society, and reduces the sa- 
cred Shasters to a fable. Religious convictions, however 
erroneous, are not readily given up by any portion of the 
human race. 



206 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

In considering what has been done, or whether any- 
thing has been accomplished, we are to take into account 
the difficulty of inducing the Hindoo to forsake the ways 
of his fathers, sever the ties that bind him to kindred 
and friends, and accept the spiritual worship of an un- 
seen Jehovah. 

The subject demands careful consideration before the 
enterprise is pronounced a failure. Moral ideas are of 
slow growth. Seed-time and harvest are far apart. All 
the circumstances of this people must be taken into 
account in making up our estimate of progress. 

The whole Bible has already been translated into four- 
teen of the languages and dialects of India, the New 
Testament into several more. Among all classes there 
is a desire to obtain an education. This is true of Mo- 
hammedans as well as of Hindoos. Mr. Herrick, of the 
Madura Mission, was recently requested to furnish a 
Christian female teacher to take charge of a school for 
Mohammedan girls. 

Speaking of the eagerness of the young to avail them- 
selves of the privilege of receiving instruction, Dr. Mc- 
Leod says : — 

" Eight missionaries can, by means of the school, secure 
a large and steady assemblage, day by day, of from five 
hundred to one thousand pupils, representing the very 
life of Hindoo society, eager to obtain an education." 

Some of the converts are engaged in preaching the 
Gospel to their countrymen. " The schools have already 
raised from among their converts an intelligent, educated, 
and respected body of native clergy," says the author above 
quoted. 

The school has been a most important instrument in 
spreading intelligence among the people. It was found 
that withdrawing children from the corrupting influ- 
ences that surrounded them in their heathen homes, and 



MISSIONARY OPERATIONS. 207' 

placing them under the immediate instruction of Chris- 
tian teachers, was one of the most successful means of 
bringing the truths of Christianity into vital contact with 
the Hindoo mind. The pupils have been prepared to act 
effectually on those still in darkness. They know the 
strength of the chains that bind them, to their idolatrous 
practices, for they have been in the same thraldom them- 
selves. Hence, from the first, the teacher %as been con- 
sidered as essential as the preacher. The wives of mis- 
sionaries, as far as their duties would permit, and other 
persons, have engaged successfully in this work. 

As early as 1828 Miss Farrar was sent out by the 
American Board, and other teachers have followed. 
Through the influence of schools woman is rising to a 
better position. As the pebble dropped into the calm 
lake sends its wavelets to the distant shore, so will the 
influence of those who have given their lives to this 
work ever widen. Those who have contributed to send 
the Bible to this people will not regret any sacrifice they 
may have made. 

The Eoman Catholic Church has had missionaries in 
India from the time the Portuguese settled at G-oa. For 
a long while they had good success, because they gratified 
the native taste for ceremony and display. G-oa is still 
the centre of their operations. 

The Times of India has an account of the exorcising of 
devils, as lately practised. A cross was erected, and effigies 
of the Virgin and the Archangels Michael and Gabriel. 
The women afflicted with devils kneeled before the im- 
ages, weeping and wailing.. The priest plucked out hand- 
fuls of their hair, thus relieving them of the wicked 
spirits. Some of the women got rid of six, others eight, 
some ten, and one of twelve devils ! 

Such a performance commends itself to the ignorant; 
but educated Hindoos are more averse, as a rule, to Ca- 



208 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



tholicism than to Protestantism. They are intellectual 
enough to accept a religion of ideas, and having turned 
from their images, reject everything that approaches idol- 
worship. We are assured by those who ought to know, 
that Catholicism is not making much headway at the 
present time. 




CASTING OUT DEVILS. 



The intelligent natives who renounce idolatry, and do 
not embrace Christianity, become Deists or Pantheists, 
Those who are best acquainted with this class say that 
Theodore Parker's works and the writings of John Stuart 
Mill are extensively read. The Hindoo who accepts 
Christianity, attends church, and receives the rite of bap- 



LIFE IN INDIA. 209 

tism, is ostracized ; but he may reject the absurdities and 
myths of the Hindoo religion, and adopt rationalism, 
without losing his social position. 

Many of the Baboos believe in the existence of the Su- 
preme Being, but reject the Bible and its teachings. 



GHAPTEE XXIII. 

LIFE IN INDIA. 

TRAVELLERS in the tropics, though they may be 
charmed by the luxuriance of nature, will miss the 
changes which mark the year in temperate climes. 
Here nature has no dividing line. Flowers are always 
in bloom, trees ever putting forth their leaves. The 
sparrows never cease their chirping in the thickets. The 
Hindoo minstrel chants no such songs of the seasons as 
are sung around our winter firesides. To him Whittier's 
" Snow-Bound " would be an unmeaning myth. He has 
no conception of a country in which the earth suddenly 
puts off her green robe, and all the genial aspects of 
nature change in a night to 

" A universe of sky and snow." 

There are no such wonderful manifestations of vital 
energy as mark the resurrection of flowers and growth 
of vegetation in cooler climes, — 

" No sweet decay and dying of the year." 

There is no winter, spring, or autumn in the Indian 
calendar. The year is divided into hot, rainy, and tem- 
perate seasons. 

The hot period commences in April and lasts till July. 



210 OUR NEW W.AY ROUND THE WORLD. 

This part of the year tells most severely upon Europeans. 
All who can leave the city. Women and children are 
sent to England. The exodus begins in March. We met 
the fugitives at Suez, and every steamer since then has 
been crowded. Many of those who remain in India 
hasten to the mountains. Some of the foreign resi- 
dents of Calcutta flee to the Darjeling hills, — the outposts 
of the Himalayas. The Europeans of Southern India 
seek health among the Mlgherry hills of the Malabar 
coast, where, at the height of five thousand feet, they 
inhale the fresh breezes that herald the approaching 
monsoon. Bombay, being on the western coast, first 
feels the periodical gale, and the hot season there is not 
so long or so severe as in the valley of the Ganges. 
Western India has its Sanitarium in the mountains near 
Poonah. Continued residence in the lowlands thins the 
blood. One or two years may be passed without much 
effect upon the system ; but lassitude creeps on ; men 
find it easier to be indolent than active ; and before they 
are aware their native vigor is gone, to be recovered only 
by returning to the land of their birth. 

The rainy season lasts from July to November. Fitful 
breezes from the southwest begin in May, but the mon- 
soon does not set in till a month later. On the western 
coast it begins about the 10th of June. It is preceded 
by light clouds, that move rapidly up from the southwest. 
As an army throws out its videttes while preparing to 
march, so these swiftly-flying pioneers of the gale flit over 
the heated land. 

The breaking of the monsoon upon the mountains and 
plains of India is grander than the onset of armies. The 
elements wage mighty war with flaming lightning, crack- 
ling and deep resounding thunders, with the breeze 
increasing to a gale, rising to a tempest, becoming a hur- 
ricane, — demolishing houses, sweeping away forests, leav- 




MOUNTAINS OF INDIA. 



LIFE IN INDIA. 211 

ing desolation in its track ; rain pouring in torrents, wash- 
ing down the mountains, drenching the highlands, and 
flooding the plains ! There is not a continuous fall of 
rain, but a succession of heavy showers, with alterna- 
tions of sunshine. 

Mists rise from the ground. The air is steaming and 
sticky. Dampness creeps into houses, and musty smells 
pervade the apartments. Green mould gathers on cloth- 
ing in the driest presses. Boots, though highly polished, 
grow a crop of fungi in twenty-four hours, if unused. 
The whitest walls become spotted with yellow, as if the 
plague had suddenly made its appearance. Eoaring fires 
must be kept in the rooms, braziers of burning charcoal 
in the closets, to keep everything about the premises from 
turning to mould. 

There is a sudden swarming of insects. They are 
innumerable ; creeping, hopping, flying, buzzing in the 
ears, diving into the food ; taking possession of bed and 
bedding ; biting, stinging, pestering ; giving no rest to 
the weary. When those that bite by day cease their 
annoyance, a hungrier set torment us when night comes 
on. 

More destructive than all others are the white ants. 
Their teeth are sharp enough to gnaw anything, unless it 
be stone, brick, glass, iron, or other metals ; everything else 
is food to them. 

" We have put down," said a railway engineer, " wooden 
ties, but the white ants eat them up in a few weeks. 
We are obliged to build iron bridges, and eventually shall 
have to resort to iron ties." 

Grain of all kinds, sugar, clothing, bedding, furniture, 
books, are destroyed by them. "They devoured," said 
a gentleman, " a large library for me in three weeks." 

Clothing must be kept in camphor-wood trunks. Food 
can only be preserved by placing it in earthen jars. Bed- 



212 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

posts must be set in glass or iron dishes, filled with salt 
water. Only by the utmost watchfulness can clothing 
and furniture be protected from their ravages. 

When the -rainy season sets in, all labor ceases. There 
is no travelling on country roads. Before the construction 
of railroads, there was little communication through the 
interior from July to November. The cool season, which 
begins in November and lasts' till April, is the time for 
active work. Then India is a paradise. It is the time 
when travellers should visit this wonderful old land. 
The air is fragrant with the odor of sweet flowers. The 
trees bear their greenest foliage. The slight coolness of 
the night gives keen relish for the enjoyment of the day. 
The sun shines from a cloudless sky. The days are 
serene ; and at night the heavens are studded with stars 
of the first magnitude, while the southern cross and the 
constellations around it are more brilliant than those of 
more northern latitudes. 

India, although so attractive during a portion of the 
year, has its drawbacks. Along this coast the cyclones 
sweep with unparalleled force. They usually occur be- 
tween the monsoons. The year might be divided by 
these alternate winds, which blow from June to October 
from the southwest and from November to May from the 
northeast. They do not shift at once, but are variable for 
a few weeks ; and during the change, or before the mon- 
soon has fairly set in, the hurricanes sweep along the 
coast. 

"Walking through Calcutta, we see the effect of the 
cyclone of last year. On every hand are wrecks of 
buildings, trees torn up by the roots or twisted like 
withes. The storm lasted but a few hours, yet ships 
were sunk in the river, others dismasted, some driven 
from their anchorage high upon the beach. The water 
of the Bay of Bengal, swelling up the Hoogly and the 



LIFE IN INDIA. 213 

mouths of the Ganges, inundated all the region of the 
Sunderbund. Thousands of the natives perished in the 
lowlands. When the tornado had passed, many of those 
who survived its violence found their houses gone, their 
fishing-boats high and dry on the land, or floating sea- 
ward in splintered pieces. 

During the winter slight frosts sometimes occur upon 
the high lands of the interior ; but in the valley of the 
Ganges, and here at Calcutta, the greatest cold sinks the 
mercury only a few degrees. Although the rainy season 
is attended with so many discomforts, no one among the 
hundred and eighty millions of India but looks forward 
to it with anxious longing. If the clouds should fail to 
come up from the sea with their freight of moisture, 
famine would stalk over the land, as it has frequently 
in the past. Several times since the English have occu- 
pied the country the laws of nature have failed to per- 
form their customary work, and hecatombs have perished 
in consequence. 

In the great famine of 1770 it is estimated that not less 
than thirty million of people perished in the valley of the 
Ganges alone. In 1866 nearly a million starved to death 
in Orissa, in Southern India. In that province less rain 
always falls than in other parts of India, owing to its 
peculiar situation, the mountains on the western coast 
intercepting the clouds. It is an out-of-the-way prov- 
ince, and there are no means of reaching it from the sea- 
coast. It was not known that there was a scarcity of 
food; and when the terrible fact became known to the 
government, the officials were so slow to act, that before 
relief was given three fourths of a million had perished. 

In 1770 there was no means of communication with 
the interior except by the river Ganges. The govern- 
ment at that time was not only forceless, but wicked. 
There was but one animating motive, — to wring from 



214 OUR NEW WAY ROUND T.HE WORLD. 

the millions of India the greatest possible amount of 
revenue. The account of that famine, the indifference 
and heartlessness of the East India Company, is one of 
the saddest pages that darkens the history of modern 
times. Notwithstanding thirty-five per cent of the popu- 
lation perished, and though one half of those who tilled 
the soil were carried off, only five per cent of the land 
tax was remitted during the year ; and in the year 1771, 
when the whole country was desolate and poverty- 
stricken, the company not only demanded the full tax, 
but ground out from the struggling population ten per 
cent additional ! When the famine was at its worst ; 
when natives were living on roots, grass, and leaves of 
trees, and devouring even the bodies of the dead ; when 
the Ganges was filled with floating corpses which the 
jackals and tigers of the jungles could not devour, the 
government met in council and voted to distribute 
$ 20,000 worth of rice a month among thirty mil- 
lions of people. The grant, which may seem munificent 
when reckoned by thousands of dollars, gives only a 
cents worth of rice per day to five hundred starving in- 
habitants, — the fraction of a kernel to each person ! 

But those years of maladministration have passed 
away, and it is hoped the days of famine may never 
return. 

Free ports, free trade in breadstuffs, railroads, steam- 
ships, and telegraphs have made it almost impossible 
that there should be a long-continued famine in any 
country. 

Biding down the banks of the Hoogly, we stop in front 
of a gateway opening into a yard where the bodies of the 
dead are burned. Venders of wood are waiting beside 
their piles of fagots for the arrival of funeral trains. A 
brisk fire is burning in the centre of the enclosure, and 
amid the crackling flames is the half-consumed body of 



LIFE IN INDIA. 215 

an adult. A sickening odor pervades the air. Near by 
sit the sorrowing relatives, one of whom kindled the fire 
as a last loving act towards the dead. 

The odor being very offensive, the government has 
recently erected tall chimneys, and are constructing fur- 
naces enclosed in iron cars, which can be run into ovens, 
so that the noxious gases will no longer endanger the 
health of the community. The natives themselves are 
much pleased with the change, as it will be more 
economical. 

Eeturning, we pass the government buildings, which 
are extensive and imposing, and kept up at great expense. 
The Governor-General has a salary five times that of the 
President of the United States. Calcutta being the polit- 
ical capital, a great deal of pomp and show is main- 
tained, not only by the officials, but by the merchants, 
who live in princely style, and have large retinues of 
servants. 

" You will see some very handsome uniforms, Mr. 
Weller," said Mr. John Smauker, as those two gen- 
tlemen entered the little green-grocer's shop to attend 
a soiree, as narrated in the Pickwick Papers ; and the 
same remark will apply to servants and footmen in 
Calcutta. 

Nearly every evening the military band plays on the 
Chowringhee, a beautiful park where the aristocracy ap- 
pear in coaches blazing with armorial decorations. Chaises 
and dog-carts abound. The foreign residents of Calcutta 
live high. A dinner is a formidable affair. There is no 
letting up of eticpiette. Though the mercury may be at 
120°, gentlemen must appear in full dress suit of black 
with white cravat, and go through all the courses of soup, 
fish, flesh, pastry, and dessert, with a variety of drinks, — 
claret, old sherry, or Bass & Co.'s ale. 

The English do not change their customs. Native 



216 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

customs must bend to theirs, — theirs to the Hindoo 
never. 

We shall not soon forget the experience of oar last 
night in Calcutta. It has a very agreeable beginning in 
the parlors of an American resident, where, while the 
hours fly swiftly by, we make the acquaintance of ladies 
and gentlemen from the United States. It is midnight 
when we bid them farewell to go on board the steamer 
which is to leave at daylight for Singapore and China. 

Our Bengalese coachman starts off at full speed ; but 
there is a sudden halt. His horse refuses to go in the 
direction of the steamer. He will go in any other. We 
pass up a short street to the right, turn round and come 
back again, go in a circle, backwards, sideways, up a street 
to the left, then back again, once more in a circle, and 
finally come to a stand-still. The driver chirrups, clucks, 
utters a variety of Hindoo words, but the beast is totally 
depraved. We are fixed in the streets. A thunder- 
shower is coming up, and by the gleaming lightning we 
can see the perverse animal with legs firmly braced, de- 
termined not to advance another inch. 

The driver has a whip, but dares not use it. He comes 
to the carriage, makes doleful lamentations in Bengali, of 
which we know as little as of Timbuctoo. 

Getting out of the carriage, motioning the driver to 
his seat, and seizing the whip, we try its effect. Stolid 
indifference a moment, then kicks, snorts, shakings of 
the head, backing, turning round, plunges at one end, 
and kicks at the other ; standing on two legs, — antics 
too numerous to be mentioned. The coachman holds up 
his hands in supplication. He will take us back, the 
horse will go in that direction. But we are going to the 
steamer. The lean, lank, spavined old rackabones has 
always had his own way, and does not mean to yield ; 
but finally thinks better of it, makes one last despairing 
kick, and plunges madly down the road. 



ACEOSS THE BAY OF BENGAL. 217 

We have barely time to leap aboard. He tears up the 
road, the sparks fly beneath his hoofs ; now we are in 
the gutter, the carriage reeling. We turn a corner and 
barely escape a capsize. But all is well that ends well, 
and so we reach at length the river-bank, and find quar- 
ters on board the steamer. 



CHAPTEE XXIV. 

ACEOSS THE BAY OF BENGAL. 

WE have tossed and tumbled, fought fleas, and waged 
a sanguinary war with innumerable mosquitoes 
through the night, and now at daylight are upon the 
deck of the Clan Alpine, to take a farewell look at 
Calcutta. 

We float past a fleet of merchant vessels lying in the 
stream, with topmasts and spars sent down to the deck, 
a precaution against the cyclones. The river is alive 
with native craft. At this early hour the followers of 
Brahma are on the bank, thousands of them taking their 
morning bath. Stately adjutant-cranes look down upon 
us from the neighboring houses ; kites scream over our 
heads ; crows make themselves at home on the deck of 
our steamer. The bustle of the day is beginning in the 
streets of this lively city of India. 

The tide is in our favor, and we glide rapidly away 
from the town, — past the beautiful parade, or common ; 
the cathedral, with its tall spire and turrets ; the fort, its 
ramparts bristling with cannon, — the place where, two 
centuries ago, the East India Company first got foothold 
on Indian soil ; past the dock-yards of the Peninsular 
10 



218 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

and Oriental Company, where one of their noble steamers 
is taking in coal for her long trip down the coast to 
Ceylon, then to Suez ; past the docks of the Messageries 
Imperiales, where another steamer is receiving a new 
coat of paint after a voyage to Japan ; past beautiful 
residences, and lovely gardens, and well-kept grounds, 
where peacocks and monkeys are sporting among the 
shrubs and flowers, where elephants, like the Hindoos, 
are taking a morning bath in the Hoogly. 

The river has many a graceful sweep, but the banks 
are low, and there is no background of hills to set off the 
groves of cocoa, palm, and plantain. We look upon rice- 
fields ; upon fishing-boats high and dry on the shore, fifty 
rods away from the river, swept up there in the great 
storm of last year, which made terrible havoc at even this 
distance from the sea. 

The Clan Alpine is rated a fast steamer ; she is freighted 
with opium, for which the Chinese are hankering. The 
government of India holds an auction of the drug on 
the 9th of every month, and on the 21st the houses of 
Jardine, Skinner, & Co. and Apcar & Co. despatch a fast 
steamer to Hong Kong. These two steamers sail for 
China direct, but indirect communication is had by the 
Peninsular and Oriental Company via Ceylon, and once 
a month a steamer creeps along the coast of Burmah to 
Singapore, where the voyager must wait to hit the regular 
liners. 

It is mid-afternoon when we pass from the fresh water 
of the river to the salt water of the Bay of Bengal. 
While asleep in our state-room, making up what was 
lost in the battle with the mosquitoes of the night before, 
there is a sudden explosion like the discharge of a can- 
non, a hurrying of feet overhead, and shrieks of agony 
The steward rushes past our door. 

" What is the trouble ? " 




MOSQUE AT HOOGLT. 



ACROSS THE BAY OF BENGAL. 219 

" The boiler has — " He is gone, the sentence un- 
finished. A cloud of steam rushes into the cabin. We 
leap from our berth, and hasten to the deck. Mrs. C. 
is there. Our startled imagination hears only her voice 
in the wild shrieks of agony, more piercing, more painful 
than all the others. We reach the cabin stairs, and are 
met by the hot vapor rolling down the gangway. In- 
stinct is quick at such times. We crouch low ? covering 
our face, creep up the stairs, crawl along the deck, gasp- 
ing, panting, inhaling air that sends a sharp pain through 
the lungs. We reach the chair in which she sat when 
we went below. She is not there. The cries are fainter 
now. We can see nothing. The white cloud is impene- 
trable to the sight, — so thick that we convulsively 
clutch at it to tear it away, as if it were a curtain, or 
something palpable to the grasp. 
> We call : no answer. Again ; then a faint " Here ! " 

Creeping along, with face close to the deck, we reach 
the stern of the vessel, where the captain, the chief 
engineer, and the five or six other passengers are stand- 
ing on the taffrail, with their heads above the awning, 
and thus protected from the steam : among them Mrs. C. 
unharmed ! 

0, how long it takes for that cloud to clear away ! It 
seems an age. Little by little we see what has happened. 
One poor fellow is writhing in agony at our feet, — 
face, hands, and breast parboiled. Going forward, and 
looking into the engine-room, we see that one of the 
superheaters has burst, pouring a volume of steam into 
the apartment, and completely enveloping the engineers 
and firemen. One by one the poor creatures are brought 
up ; some are dead, others dying ; some with skin hang- 
ing in shreds and patches, countenances disfigured be- 
yond the possibility of recognition, flesh burned away, 
leaving tendons and bones bare. There are nineteen 



220 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

victims in all. They are all natives except one, the fourth 
engineer, who is a Scotchman. Tablecloths are torn up 
for bandages, oil is poured upon the wounds of the suffer- 
ers ; everything possible is done for their relief ; but for 
thirteen of them human aid is of no avail. 

The chief engineer states that there were but eighteen 
pounds of steam on at the time, and that he has fre- 
quently run the engine with twenty-five. It is the 
" priming " of the boilers consequent upon passing from 
fresh into salt water that caused the explosion ; but an 
examination of the fractured iron shows that under the 
superheating process the life of the metal has been grad- 
ually burned out. 

Having two boilers still intact, and the engine unin- 
jured, the captain decides to go on, though our voyage 
will be delayed two or three days in consequence of 
the accident. 

The bodies of the dead Hindoos are committed to the 
deep without any religious ceremony, for they have no 
funeral rites. But a sad group gathers amidships at sun- 
set, — the captain, the officers, the passengers, and the 
Malays and Hindoos, who are curious to see how Chris- 
tians dispose of their dead. Father, mother, relatives, 
and friends of his youth are far away in his native land. 
A few strokes upon the bell, a few words from the burial- 
service, read with faltering voice by the captain. Tears 
course down the bronzed cheeks of his brother officers 
as they bear the body to the vessel's side, and commit it 
to the deep. 

" mother, praying God will save 

Thy sailor, — while thy head is bowed 
His heavy-shotted hammock-shroud 
Drops in his vast and wandering grave." 



THE SPICE ISLANDS, 221 

CHAPTEB XXV. 

THE SPICE ISLANDS. 

OUE course is southeast, across a smooth sea. Five 
hundred miles bring us to the Andaman Islands, a 
group which lies west of the coast of Burmah. On the 
map they are represented as being near the main-land, 
b>ut it is full two hundred miles across to Eangoon. 
They are of volcanic origin, heaved up from the sea ages 
ago, but clothed now with the rankest tropical verdure. 

There is a light-house on Cocoa Island, maintained by 
the English government. A ship calls there three or 
four times a year, sent out by the India Light-house 
Board ; but the five or six individuals composing the 
colony live by themselves during the long months, with- 
out other intercourse with the world. On one of the 
southern islands of the chain the East Indian govern- 
ment has established a penal colony. Birds are flying 
along the shores ; monkeys without number are chat- 
tering in the green forests ; but there are no signs of 
human life, ■ — no roads winding up the hillsides. The 
wild men who people this group occupy only the largest 
islands, which lie out of our track, and are as wild now 
as their ancestors were a thousand years ago. 

Nature has put a great block in the path of commerce 
here, as she has also at Suez and Panama. The Malay 
peninsula is a narrow tongue of land, only twelve miles 
wide at one place ; if it did not exist, or if there were 
a canal across it, vessels bound to or from China might 
save a thousand miles of their voyage. 

This is a land of enchantment. We never weary of 



222 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

gazing upon its hills and mountains, — some so high that 
their summits are lost in the clouds, — clothed in the 
richest verdure, from wave-washed base to cloud-capped 
peak. 

We look into deep ravines, through lovely vistas, 
varying every moment, and revealing new beauties, 
which are succeeded by others before we have time 
to express our admiration of them. 

These are the " spice islands," — of nutmeg, clove, 
pimento, and cinnamon, — fanned by balmy breezes, 
laved by gentle waves, reposing beneath skies ever 
beautiful, — islands that have enchanted us in poesy. 

But there is another side to the picture. The mercury 
is ninety-three in the shade, the atmosphere steamy and 
sticky. Wipe ourselves thoroughly dry with a towel, and 
in five minutes we are again reeking with perspiration. 
Energy evaporates. We feel like doing nothing, but 
would give a good price for a cool place to do it in. 
The breeze, so balmy over the poetic page, is hot and 
penetrating ; we would like to carry out the idea of 
Sydney Smith, and take off our flesh and sit in our 
bones. 

Were we to take up our residence upon the islands, we 
should find snakes, scorpions, centipedes, lizards, and all 
sorts of vermin, making themselves free with our prem- 
ises. We should have wood-leeches creeping into our 
nostrils while asleep, and absorbing the best blood of the 
brain. The deadly cobra would wriggle into our bed- 
chamber, without asking our leave ; spiders, with legs, 
three inches long, bodies the size of a small teacup, 
would spin webs over our windows, or look down upon 
us with hungry eyes from the corners of the room. 
Swarms of flying ants would come into the dining-room 
at dinner-time, and light upon the roast mutton ; white 
ants would bore out the table-legs, gnaw away the pillars 




VALLEY OF THE IRAWADDY. 



THE SPICE ISLANDS. 223 

of the house, or carry off our best suits of clothes in a 
single night ; bugs, flies, fleas, beetles, cockroaches, lice, 
— blue bugs and black bugs, yellow bugs and green 
bugs, little bugs and big bugs, — creeping, flying, skip- 
ping, hopping, jumping, running, — coming at morning, 
noon, and night, — especially at night, when we are 
sweating, tossing, turning, and tumbling, and trying to 
get a wink of sleep ! How nice to have a great spider 
straddle over your face, cockroaches as large as mice skip 
across the dinner-table ! If these seem to be exaggera- 
tions, go into a Museum of Natural History, and there see 
what company the people of the tropics are compelled 
to put up with. The lands of spice are delightful, as 
seen by the poet's eye. The natives undoubtedly think 
there are no climes so beautiful ; and some Englishmen 
profess to like these lands better than their own misty 
isle. It is well for the world that tastes differ. 

A change of course, and a few hours' steaming, would 
take us up the Gulf of Martaban to Burmah, to the 
mouths of the Irawaddy, to Eangoon and Maulmain ; 
but our course is towards the equator. We have a 
view of Port Cornwallis, — the penal settlement of the 
Indian government. 

Steaming southeast a few hours brings us in sight of 
the mountains on the main-land, which rear their lofty 
summits high above the sea. Approaching nearer, we 
gaze entranced upon the scene. We are sailing over 
smooth waters, — 

" Calm on the seas, and silver sleep, 
And waves that sway themselves in rest." 

The air is loaded with perfume from the shore ; a varied 
verdure meets the eye, — palms on the low land, betel, 
cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, dorian, and mangosteen upon the 
slopes : shades of deep green in the ravines, fading to 



224 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

lighter hues higher up the mountain-sides. No fields 
or farms or villages fill up the panorama. Native huts 
are seen along the shore, but the Malayan attempts no 
conquest of nature. The sea gives him fish, the forest 
fruit ; thus he is provided with food. A mat affords him 
shelter. So the hand of man has wrought no changes 
in the landscape. It is as it has been since the morn- 
ing stars sang together. 

Opposite the northern end of Sumatra, close under 
the coast of Malacca, is the island of Penang, about thir- 
teen miles long and eleven wide, separated from the main- 
land by a narrow strait. It was taken possession of by 
the East India Company in 1786, and was held by that 
corporation till 1857, when it became a dependency of 
the British crown. A few years ago a strip of the main- 
land was obtained, — ceded to the British government by 
the native rajah, Queda, who has placed himself and tribe 
under English protection. The island and the ceded ter- 
ritory are known as the province of AVellesley, and have 
together a population made up as follows : — 

Malays . 72,000 

Chinese . . . \ . . . 39,000 

Natives of India 14,000 

Asiatics and Europeans . . . 1,700 



126,700 

The number of Europeans does not exceed one hun- 
dred ; but they are sufficient to maintain order even in 
such a mixed population. There might be a different 
story were it not for the presence of war-vessels and the 
cannon of the fortress, which overlook the town as well 
as command the strait. 

The harbor is on the east side of the island, completely 
sheltered from the monsoons, which never are violent in 
this region. We sight the island before the sun goes 



ACROSS THE BAY OF BENGAL. 



225 




10* 



226 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

down, but it is nearly ten o'clock before we drop anchor 
in the harbor. We do not regret it, for we sail, over a 
phosphorescent sea. 

" hundred shores of happy climes, 

How swiftly streamed ye hy the bark ! 

At times the whole sea burned, at times 

With wakes of fire we tore the dark." 



CHAPTEK XXVI. 

PENANG. 

WE are surrounded by boats, which put out from the 
landing, and long before we can discern the dusky 
forms of the rowers, or the outline of the craft, we can see 
their oars dip up the liquid light ! Every fish darting 
through the water carries a torch. We behold lines of 
light curving and turning, now slow, now darting with 
the rapidity of lightning, line cutting across line in end- 
less streams. A shower comes on, and every rain-drop 
turns to fire as it touches the sea, as if a hand unseen 
were sowing the deep with diamonds ! Hour after hour 
we gaze in wonder and delight. The boats have gone to 
the shore ; the steamer swings at her moorings ; the tide 
is setting past ; as the eddies come and go, we behold as 
it were the unwinding of webs, the unfolding of scrolls of 
light over the broad surface of the deep. 

In the morning we find ourselves lying east of a low 
fort, — a green esplanade in front, the town south of it, 
two church-spires outlined against the dark green of the 
mountain beyond, which rises two thousand feet high. 
A few vessels are anchored in the harbor, hundreds of 
row-boats around us, a Chinese junk near by. 



PENANG. 227 

We have reached the western verge of the Flowery 
Land. We might say that that land had bloomed over 
its own borders, and its blossoms had fallen here. Our 
waiters on the steamer are Celestials with pigtails. 

We go ashore in a boat rowed by a Chinaman with a 
hat three feet in diameter, shaped like the cover of a 
huge sugar-bowl. His sampan, or boat, has two eyes 
painted at the bow. 



m 



IS 




'NO HAVE EYES, NO CAN SEE." 



" Why do you have eyes to your sampan ? " we ask. 

" No have eyes, no can see," is the reply of the good- 
natured fellow, who puts on a broad grin every time we 
look at him. 

A Malayan duck-pedler — a lad with a large basket 
filled with the fowls — is on the pier when we land, 
ready to drive a good bargain. He has obtained a cast- 
off English soldier's cap, of which he is as proud as an 
American juvenile with a pair of new boots. He has a 
pleasing countenance, and is bright enough to drive a 
sharp trade with the steward. 



228 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 




We land at a little jetty, or pier, the only one of the 
port. The water is deep enough to admit our steamer 
alongside ; but this pier is never put to such a vulgar use 

as the loading or un- 
loading of merchan- 
dise. It is reserved 
for his Excellency 
the Governor, who 
lives at Singapore, 
and who visits the 
place once a year 
to see how Penang 
is getting on. His 
puissant mightiness 
has ordered that no 
vessel shall be per- 
mitted to drop an- 
chor within five 
hundred yards of 
the pier. He can- 
not have it contam- 
inated by being 
made the depot of 
rice, sugar, and oth- 
er merchandise, nor 
can he be bothered, 
although he comes only once in a twelvemonth, by having 
a steamer or a ship in the way of his landing. When he 
arrives, the cannon of the fort boom their loudest thun- 
ders, and all Penang stands trembling in his presence. 

Arrogance flourishes out here. It grows luxuriantly 
in English soil, and loses none of its vigor by trans- 
planting. 

Penang has one hotel. Our captain's recommendation 
of it is laconic, if not elegant. " You will," said he, " find 
it a mean, dirty, stinking hole." 




POULTRY BOY. 



PENANG. 229 

Eiding up a broad avenue, with palms rustling above 
us, bananas bending with fruit, and gorgeous flowers in 
full bloom, filling the air with fragrance, we arrive at 
the establishment, — an airy bungalow, open on all sides, 
to admit the breeze. 

Over the entrance is a painting intended to represent 
the three ostrich-plumes and crest of the Prince of Wales, 
and beneath it a golden-lettered sign, with this inscrip- 
tion, "By permission, Hotel Keeper to H. R H. Prince 
of Wales ! " Eegent Street, with all its unicorns, lions, 
griffins, crowns, and crests, cannot display a more affect- 
ing example of flunkeyism. The Prince never has been 
to Penang, nor is it likely he will ever sleep in this 
bungalow ; nor is there any reason to suppose he will 
ever buy a saddle, tooth-brush, bug-poison, or anything 
else, at any of the numerous shops in old England 
which, by special permission of the Lord Chamberlain, 
are allowed to keep such things for his benefit ; but it is 
one way in which the Britons show their affectionate and 
unswerving loyalty. This wretched daub of a sign we 
are to consider as a standing hurrah of the hotel-keeper 
for royalty in general, and Albert Edward in particular. 

The Europeans here are engaged in the spice trade. 
The warehouses are piled with boxes and sacks of 
pimento. Nearly all the employees in the mercantile 
establishments are Chinese, who make expert accountants 
and bankers. The currency is the Mexican silver dollar. 
Having been advised to exchange rupees for coin current 
in China, we enter a banking-house, and are waited on 
by a Chinaman, who counts out our change with great 
rapidity, clinking each piece, ascertaining by the sound 
its genuineness. We are informed that they are as 
shrewd and competent as Europeans in all business mat- 
ters. 

A short ride enables us to see the features of the place : 



230 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



the fort, with low walls and finely kept esplanade ; wide 
avenues, well watered, bordered by the elegant residences 
of the few Europeans ; narrower streets, crowded with 
Chinese shops, joss-houses, stalls for the sale of the 
betel-leaf, toddy-shops, where the Chinamen drink Sam- 
shu and Bhang, — liquors made from rice and hemp ; 
opium hells, where they become oblivious to the cares 
and troubles of life by smoking themselves into a state 
of beastly stupefaction. 







MALAY HOUSE. 



The houses of the Malayans, in the suburbs of the 
town, are built on posts for free circulation of air, to in- 
sure dryness, and keep out snakes and vermin, as well 
as other like intruders. The entrance is by a ladder, 
which is a favorite lounging-place for the mistress of the 
establishment, who has no great amount of housework to 
do. Her parlor, dining, sleeping room, and kitchen are 
one and the same. 

Until recently the Peninsular and Oriental steamers 



PENANG. 231 

between Ceylon and China have called at this port, but 
now they pass it by, saving a day in the trip. It is a 
damaging blow to the prospects of the Europeans, who 
remain here only for the purpose of trade. Occasionally 
a steamer calls on its way from Singapore to Eangoon on 
the Burmah coast, and the Calcutta and China steamers 
make the port ; but there is not much life in the colony, 
and its future prospects are not very hopeful. 

Once more on board, we have a run of three hundred 
and thirty miles down the Malay coast before reaching 
Singapore. We have an unruffled sea, the coast in view 
nearly all the way ; now low, fiat, and uninteresting, and 
now beautiful, with groves of palms, cocoa, nutmeg, and 
cinnamon ; bold headlands, high mountains, clothed with 
varying shades of green. It is not till we are near Singa- 
pore that we catch sight of Sumatra, — a low shore covered 
with tropical vegetation, and beyond, through the haze, 
the peaks of mountains which rise ten thousand feet 
above the sea. 

An English gentleman, who takes passage for Sin- 
gapore, is enthusiastic in praise of the dorian, which 
grows upon the island. 

" You shall have a taste of it, sir, at dinner," he says, 
pointing to a basket containing several dorians. They 
are oval-shaped, and about the size of a pineapple. 

" That is the husk," he adds, " the fruit lies within. 
It is bike custard, flavored with pineapple and strawberry. 
It is the most delicious fruit in the world. My boys here 
will eat it from morning till night. I myself am extrava- 
gantly fond of it." 

" Prepare yourself," said the captain, " for a stench 
worse than any that ever entered your nostrils." 

" Nonsense ! The first odor may not be agreeable, but 
I am sure you will like it." 

" If you don't hold your nose I shall be mistaken. 



232 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

that's all. Think of all the disgusting, ill-smelling, un- 
savory, nauseating, stinking things in the world, — fried 
onions, stewed garlic, burnt feathers, singed hair, assafoe- 
tida, all sorts of doctor's stuff, and the odor of skunks ! " 
responds the captain. 

Such conflicting opinions excite curiosity, if not ap- 
petite. 

Dinner comes ; and, the meat and puddings disposed 
of, we await the dessert. A passenger upon the opposite 
side of the table, a full-blooded Englishman, suddenly 
begins to sniff the air. 

" What infernal stench is that ! " is his first exclamation. 
" I should think that the steward had got hold of a bad 
egg," he adds, looking towards the pantry, and twisting 
his face into an expression of the utmost disgust. 

The odor becomes intense, permeating the cabin and 
extending to every state-room. Handkerchiefs are brought 
into requisition ; and now the steward enters, holding a 
plate in one hand and his nose with the other. He drops 
the plate upon the table without ceremony, and goes out 
upon the run, the liberated hand clapped suddenly upon 
his stomach, as if to keep his internal machinery all 
right. 

" Are you going to try it ? " 

" Pitch in." 

y After you." 

" Goodness gracious ! what a stench ! " 

" Minks and muskrats ! " 

" Worse than that, — ferrets and polecats ! " 

Each waits for his neighbor to begin. It requires some 
effort to keep the stomach from turning inside out. But 
we are travelling to see what is worth seeing, to eat 
what is worth eating ; and as the Penang gentleman is 
swallowing the fruit as if it were the daintiest delicacy 
in the world, we determine to try it, though conscious 



SINGAPORE. 233 

all eyes at table are watching the result of the experi- 
ment. 

There is nothing that in the realization so belies the 
promise as the dorian. The edible part is like custard 
flavored with pineapple and strawberry, but the final 
taste that of garlic. 

" How do you like it ? '"' 

"What does it taste like ? " 

" Is it good 1 " 

Such are the questions ; then others, growing bolder 
nerve themselves to try it, — some to succeed, others to 
follow the steward to the gangway, and throw their dinner 
to the fishes. One of the passengers seizes the basket 
containing the remainder of the fruit, and tosses it over- 
board, while the steward sprinkles the cabin with disin- 
fecting fluid. 

The seventy distinct smells of Cologne, if condensed 
into a single bottle, could not be more nauseating than 
the odor of the dorian. Yet it is a favorite fruit at Pe- 
nang ; and the children of the European residents, like 
Oliver Twist at the parish workhouse, hold up their 
plates for more. 



CHAPTEE XXVII. 

SINGAPORE. 

WE pass the town of Malacca, on the main-land, with 
the British flag flying from the fort. Chinese 
junks and native craft lie in the harbor. The population 
numbers about seventy thousand, two thirds of whom are 
Malays. A few Europeans reside there, but the trade of 
the place is mostly in the hands of the Chinese. 



234 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Singapore, or "the town of lions/' is situated on an 
island at the easterly entrance to the Straits of Malacca, 
and forms the extreme limit of the long, narrow penin- 
sula that projects from the continent of Asia one thou- 
sand miles southward. It is about seventy miles north of 
the equator. No port on the globe is more conveniently 
situated for ocean travel. It is on the great thoroughfare 
of Eastern commerce, all of which, passing from the Cape 
of Good Hope, or from Suez and India, to China, must 
make the Straits of Malacca or those of Sunda. In either 
case vessels pass near Singapore. 

The island is about twenty-seven miles long and from 
twelve to fifteen broad, separated from the main-land by a 
strait that in many places is not more than one fourth 
of a mile wide, so that this island is substantially a part 
of the peninsula. 

It is early morning when we steam into the harbor, 
feeling our way slowly along a passage that winds 
among numerous small islands. The main channel is 
farther south, but this up which we pass to the new 
harbor, though narrow, has deep water, and is navigable 
for large steamers. We look up inlets and into shel- 
tered coves, and see huts standing on bamboo posts 
driven into the mud. The tide ebbs and flows beneath 
them. Tethered to the posts are the small boats of the 
fishermen, whose families live in these frail structures. 

Emerging from the network of islands, and making a 
wide sweep to avoid a coral reef, we have an opportunity 
of seeing the crescent-shaped harbor, filled with English 
and American vessels, which have stopped here for fresh 
supplies on their way to or from China. Several steam- 
ers are at anchor. One iron screw, just in from Manila, 
is taking in coal for her long stretch across the Indian 
Ocean round the Cape of Good Hope, and thence to 
Liverpool, under contract to make the distance between 



SINGAPORE. 235 

Manila and the Mersey in seventy days, or forfeit five 
dollars per ton for every day exceeding the time speci- 
fied. Another steamer has its flag flying at the peak, as 
a signal for departure, and a few hours hence will be 
running down the coast of Sumatra for Batavia, three 
days distant. 

The harbor is alive with boats, — junks just in from 
China, and Malay craft such as formerly were manned 
by pirates, ever on the watch for ships passing through 
the straits. Many a noble vessel lies beneath these 
waters, captured by them in years gone by. But piracy 
has been entirely suppressed in these seas, and this once 
dreaded section of the Indian Archipelago is now as free 
from the sea-rovers as the Atlantic. The latest piracies 
were committed by Captain Semmes. Sailing out of this 
port, cheered by the British residents, almost within sight 
of the town, he plundered and burned three American 
vessels. 

We pass small islands covered with cocoas and palms, 
with leaves so broad that Mother Eve, if she could have 
had them, would have required but two to make her a 
complete garment. The town is level ; but behind it rise 
hills two or three hundred feet high, one of them sur- 
mounted by a fort and marine telegraph station. Shady 
nooks and charming retreats abound. We have perpetual 
spring, — no winter nor summer nor autumn ; a tem- 
perature almost unvarying ; showers nearly every day ; 
verdure luxuriant, ne,w leaves always swelling from the 
bud, flowers always in bloom ; the sun rising and setting 
within a minute or two of six o'clock the year round, — 
for we are only seventy miles from the equator ; balmy 
breezes laden with sweet odors from the nutmeg-groves ; 
tides and currents sweeping past, between the China Sea 
and the Bay of Bengal. There are few places that have 
so unvarying, attractive, and healthy a climate. 



236 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



_3V= 


^Ss=. 


The street fruit- 


- ■£. *- ^"HO* J 


sellers of Singa- 


4 —'-£? yh 


pore have seen our 


entrance to the har- 


# 


bor, and are wait- 


~~~ ^ m| (lli ^ 


ing on the wharf 


/\ mM 


IP /pk 

III// \ \ 


to supply us with 
dorians, bananas, 


'! . '■ ".-:>' '; :: "V': ■ ■■ 


mangosteens, and 
pineapples. After 


^M : lfc:i! 


our experience with 


the dorian, we do 


not care to lay in 


*5ijp£ 


a fresh supply of 
that Malayan pro- 


- ■■ ; 'S^^i^T~^-^ '--■ 7 " 


duction, but the 


" 


other fruits are 




juicy, cooling, de- 


FRUITS OF MALACCA. 


licious. 


The population of the place, by the latest enumeration, 


was as follows : — 




Chinese ... 


58,000 


Malays ..... 


. 13,500 


East Indians 


12,700 


Asiastics ..... 


. 6,500 


Europeans 




6,000 



Total 



96,700 



It is rapidly increasing by the influx of Chinese, and the 
town is supposed to contain more than one hundred thou- 
sand inhabitants at the present time. Being a free port, 
it has a large trade. Goods to the value of fifteen million 
dollars per annum are imported, which are supplied to the 
surrounding islands. The exports are six or seven mil- 



SINGAPORE. 237 

lions. It is a great nutmeg mart. Coffee is raised here in 
large quantities, which is sold as prime old Java ! 

The streets of the town are wide and straight ; the 
houses and shops mainly of two stories, covered with 
tiles. The signs are in Chinese characters, and nearly 
every person we meet has a pigtail. The scenes are new 
and strange ; — men with hats three feet in diameter, the 
crown running up to a point like a cupola, others tunnel- 
shaped, others like reversed wash-bowls ; men, with a 
strip of blue cotton cloth round the loins, trip past, 
walking briskly, carrying buckets and baskets, tubs and 
pails, suspended from a light, springing bamboo laid 
across their shoulders. These are the market-men. Look- 
ing into the shops, we see all crafts and trades. There 
are shoemakers, joiners, carpenters, washermen, bakers ; 
and opium saloons, reeking with sickening odors. We 
drive into the square where Europeans principally con- 
gregate, and find it laid out with shade-trees, flowering- 
shrubs, and gravelled walks, and surrounded by ware- 
houses. Young men from England are here to make 
their fortunes in trade. They are dressed in white 
pants and black jackets, — the orthodox business cos- 
tume for this climate. 

They have not lost their taste for ale, their time 
seeming to be about equally divided between their 
desks in the counting-houses and the saloons of the 
liquor-dealers. 

The public square is a pleasant business place, though 
business does not seem to be very lively. No one moves 
with vigor. The climate takes all energy out of a Euro- 
pean in a short time. The merchants gather in groups 
beneath the grateful shade, and talk business and take 
things easily. In the side streets are numerous dram- 
shops for the sailors. The "Jolly Tar," the "Sailors' 
True Home," display the Stars and Stripes close beside 



238 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

the Cross of St. George. The little salt creek which 
divides the town swarms with Chinese boats. Families- 
live afloat in these small craft, the only shelter from sun 
and rain being a piece of matting. 

We have reached the land of pigs. A Chinaman has 
no scruples about eating pork, — none of the prejudices 
of the Mohammedan, the Jew, and the Hindoo. He is as 
fond of it as a native of Arkansas. Pigs roam the streets 
and devour the garbage, doing here such scavenger work 
as is done by the dogs of Constantinople, Cairo, and 
Damascus, and the cranes and kites of Calcutta. 

The grounds around the English residences are taste- 
fully laid out, and adorned with shrubs and flowers in 
great variety. Nowhere have we seen such profusion 
and richness of vegetation. It flourishes with such 
vigor that it is almost impossible to keep the gravelled 
walks and flower-beds free from grass and weeds. 

" Don't fail to see the Chinaman's garden," is the in- 
junction of a gentleman on the steamer. Taking a car- 
riage, we ride through the town, past the government 
buildings, — large and imposing edifices, looming grandly 
from the bay, — past two very pretty churches, and resi- 
dences of merchants, surrounded by well-kept grounds, 
shaded with tropical trees, and beautified by gorgeous 
flowers of every hue. Upon the road we meet crowds of 
Chinese, going to or returning from market ; some halt- 
ing at the tea-shops to drink their favorite beverage, or at 
the opium saloons to whiff the fumes of the stupefying 
drug. 

Never rode we through an avenue so beautiful as 
that leading to the " Whampoa Gardens." Stately palms, 
wild almonds, tall, feathery bamboos, and trees of un- 
known name, line the roadway, spreading out their 
branches overhead, their trunks wreathed with creeping- 
plants. Orchids and wild heliotrope bloom in the thick 



SINGAPORE. 



239 



hedges : shrubs, plants, vines, in endless variety, broad 
and narrow leaved, ovate, heart-shaped, trifoliate, — leaf 
and flowers filling the air with odors new and strange, 
■and almost overpowering. 

A ride of about two miles brings us to the residence of 
a Chinaman who has made a large fortune by trade at 
Singapore, and who, instead of returning to his native 
land, as most of his countrymen are in the habit of doing, 
has made this his permanent home. He loves floricul- 






,:';'.. il ■•.' ■■■■ 

: 

w 








AVENUE AT SINGAPORE. 



ture, and has spent a great deal of money in fitting up his 
residence and the grounds around it. A tall fellow, with 
thin face, lantern-jaws, long pigtail, wearing a blue cot- 
ton tunic and flowing trousers and Chinese hat, escorts- 
us through the grounds, to which we have free admission. 
The proprietor is sick, otherwise he would himself show 
us the rare tropical plants and flowers. 

The grounds are not laid out in accordance with ..the* 
rules of landscape gardening given by English and Amer- 



240 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD- 

ican florists. The premises contain a dozen acres, — 
gardens within gardens, — with arbors, tea-houses, and 
canals, and tanks stocked with goldfish. There are 
straight paths, winding walks, and labyrinths, a wonder- 
ful variety of tropical vegetation, — a place where the 
florist or botanist might find unspeakable pleasure. Our 
conductor brings us to a section of the grounds where 
dogs, dragons, hobgoblins, and crocodiles, with great 
goggle eyes, stare at us, — fashioned from a twining 
shrub, that is hedged in. and clipped off. trained on wires, 
and thus tortured into fantastic shapes. 

Passing through one of the tea-houses, v/e find that the 
proprietor has Italian vases, French clocks, Japanese 
carved work, windows of German stained glass, floors of 
English encaustic tiles, flower-pots from the potteries of 
his native land, arranged with little taste or order. A 
Chinaman's ideas of the artistic are grotesque. The pic- 
tures which we see on China-ware are excellent represen- 
tations of Chinese art. They have not advanced beyond 
the child's plain surface drawing, and have no compre- 
hension of the rules of perspective. 

The chief attractions of the garden are the monster 
Victoria rcgias, which here reach their full development 
in the open air. Flocks of waterfowl are sitting on the 
leaves of the plants, which are large and strong enough 
to bear up a child. 

Here we behold the gigantic fan-palm flourishing with 
wonderful vigor, the stems of the leaves radiating from the 
tall trunk like the sticks of a fan, each leaf seven or eight 
feet in length. In that charming child-romance of Paul 
and Virginia the lad carries such a leaf to protect his 
fair companion from the sun and rain. The natives of 
Malacca know nothing of Paul and his exploits, but they 
are well acquainted with the palm, and we see hucksters 
by the road sheltering themselves from the sun beneath a 
single leaf. 



SINGAPORE. 



241 



On one side of the garden is a hospital for hogs. The 
owner of the grounds is a believer in the Buddhist re- 
ligion, and holds to the transmigration of souls. Enter- 



' ?^ \ risers"" 




"Z% 



FAN-PALM. 



ing the pigsty, we behold about a dozen fat porkers. 
The owner keeps them in excellent condition ; they have 
enough to eat and are well cared for, inasmuch as the 
spirit of his father may be inhabiting one of them, his 
grandfather another ! A deceased elder brother may be 
inhabiting the body of the baboon that gnashes his teeth 
at us, and rattles the chain which confines him to one of 
the posts of the building. Of the beast, beastly ; yet the 
religion which inculcates such a belief is accepted by one 
third of the human race ! 

The Chinese are great money-getters. Merchants and 
servants are equally thrifty The attendant who conducts 
us through the garden holds out his hand for money just 
as eagerly and naturally and unblushingly as if he were 
a verger of Westminster Abbey or Salisbury Cathedral. 
11 r 



242 OUK NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Our coachman demands four dollars fare, though entitled 
to but one. He appeals to our sympathies by panto- 
mimic signs, pressing his hands upon his belly, giving 
us to understand that there is a vacuum inside. He looks 
upon foreigners as legitimate prey ; but the police regu- 
lations are very strict, and at the mention of the word 
" police," he becomes civil, respectful, and contented with 
his due. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

LIFE IN MALACCA. 

ALONG the sea-shore are low lands, with dense 
thickets of mangroves, — shrubs with dark-green 
leaves, and a tangled network of roots. These shrubs at 
night are luminous with myriads of fire-flies. The thicket 
not only sparkles, but at times glows with light. A 
favorite amusement with the Chinese boys is throwing 
clubs among the shrubs, and watching the sudden flashes. 
The Malayan maidens, on gala-nights, to make them- 
selves more attractive, wear " lightning-bugs " in their 
hair ! The women of Malacca have soft, lustrous eyes, 
drooping lashes, and countenances indicative of kiad 
dispositions. They are modest in their deportment, and 
dress neatly and tastefully. They protect themselves 
from the sun by an enormous cheese-shaped head-gear, 
which, though two feet in diameter and six inches thick, 
is light and airy. 

The men are well-proportioned, full-limbed, with dark- 
brown eyes and smooth copper-colored skins. They can 
be firm friends or malignant enemies. They are naturally 



LIFE IN MALACCA. 



243 



affectionate, but being Mohammedans, they have accepted 
the worst features of the faith of Islam, — hostility to all 
other religions. 

The road which leads across the island to a little place 
called Selita, — a resort of the Europeans for rest and 
recreation, — passes through a Malayan forest. Trees 
six feet in diame- 
ter rear their lofty 
trunks one hundred 
feet above us. They 
throw out their 
stout branches and 
lock arms with their 
neighbors, forming 
a delightful arcade. 
Of less height are 
the dorian, mango- 
steen, and jack, — 
fruit-bearing trees, 
in which apes and 
monkeys chase each 
other from limb to 
limb ; where paro- 
quets and macaws, 
birds of paradise, 
and others of bril- 
liant plumage, chat- 
ter through the 
day. There are 

shrubs with unknown names, herbaceous plants of vari- 
eties unknown beyond the tropics. Parasitic plants, 
drawing their life from the stately trees, hang in dark 
masses or droop in graceful festoons from the bending 
limbs ; creepers, clinging to the rough bark, twine up- 
ward with their tendrils till they clasp the topmost 




MALAYAN LADY. 



244 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

twigs ; rattans, no larger than a walking-stick, wind them- 
selves around the towering monai'chs of the forest, reach 
the highest branches, climb along the interlaced limbs 
from tree to tree, the nourishing juices of the soil giving 
life to leaves three hundred feet distant ! Mightier than 
these are huge twiners, a foot in diameter, encircling with 
many turns the trunks as they ascend, running out upon 
the limbs, dropping to the ground, striking new root, 
doubling again upon themselves, and gathering tree after 
tree in their folds, as the serpents wreathed themselves 
about Laocoon and his sons. It is always night in such 
a jungle. The fiercest rays of the sun cannot penetrate 
the gloom. 

Tigers abound, and are very ferocious. It is stated that 
they devour a man every day. A large reward is offered 
for every tiger-skin. The most successful hunter is an 
American named Caroll, who lives with the natives and 
accommodates himself to their habits of life. The Euro- 
peans here tell wonderful stories of his exploits. The 
jungle is too dense to admit of regular hunts, and he 
constructs pitfalls. He knows the haunts of the beast, 
captures a cub if possible when the tigress is away after 
food, and places it in the pit, to which its cries soon 
bring the mother. 

The trapping of a tigress is a great event. The natives 
from the surrounding region assemble to enjoy the ravings 
of the beast in its vain endeavors to escape. Caroll states 
that the tigress secretes her cubs from the male, who, if 
he discovers them, makes a breakfast of his own progeny. 
He is of the opinion that two out of every three are 
thus devoured. He looks upon this propensity on the 
part of the tiger as a happy arrangement in the econ- 
omy of nature ; for if all the cubs were to come to 
maturity, they would destroy the other animals and 
depopulate the island. 



LIFE IN MALACCA. 245 

Singapore has contributed one very important article 
to the commerce of the world, — gutta-percha. Some- 
where about twenty-five years ago an Englishman noticed 
that the native coachmen had very curious whip-stocks, 
which they said were made from the juice of a tree. He 
sent some of them to London, where they attracted the 
attention of chemists and artisans, and the article was 
soon brought into general use. The discovery was made 
at the right time, for without gutta-percha no Atlan- 
tic cable could have been laid, and the whole world put 
into instant communication. It has entered largely into 
the arts and manufactures, and the world could not now 
well dispense with it. 

The natives make incisions in the trees, collect the 
sap, which is evaporated in the sun. When reduced to 
the consistency of tar, they use it to trap tigers. Not 
long since a man was carried off from one of the villages 
by a tigress, and partially devoured. Knowing that the 
beast would return the next day to complete its meal, 
they spread a quantity of the gutta-percha in the vicinity, 
and covered it with chaff. The animal came, got it into 
his mouth, on his jaws, into his eyes, upon his body. 
He soon wrought himself into the condition of Hamlet's 
uncle, — growling, roaring his wordless 

" O limed soul that, struggling to be free, 
Art more engaged." 

The natives gathered, watched awhile his ineffectual 
efforts to rub it off, and finally dispatched him. 

A few years ago the European residents engaged in the 
cultivation of nutmegs. Success attended their efforts 
for a while ; but the trees are short-lived, and the experi- 
ment has resulted in failure. Pepper is still cultivated 
by the Chinamen. It is a plant which requires constant 
attention, but is made profitable by this patient, pains- 
taking people. 



246 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

The climate of Singapore is one of the most equable 
in the world. The mercury seldom sinks below 70°, 
and rarely rises above 90°. 

" Eternal summer " reigns. The days are not all cloud- 
less, for sudden showers fall, which cool the air, and 
give fresh vigor to the exuberant foliage. The rain-fall 
is almost double that of the United States, the average 
being eighty-seven inches. It fell on one hundred and 
eighty-four out of the three hundred and sixty-five days 
of last year. The monsoons, which are so powerful and 
destructive in India, are not felt here ; neither are the 
cyclones of the Indian Ocean nor the typhoons of the 
Chinese Sea. 

There are few localities more charming, and it is said 
to be an excellent climate for invalids. The variety of 
vegetation, its luxuriance, the beauty of the surround- 
ing waters, the wonderful gardens beneath the waves, 
the workmanship and industry of the coralline insects, 
the gorgeously-tinted shells, the myriads of brilliant in- 
sects which sport in the sunshine, — make it attractive to 
the naturalist as well as the pleasure-traveller. 

The residents here tell good stories of the igno- 
rance and stupidity of the London managers of the old 
East India Company in regard to the productions and 
the natural history of Malacca. There was a time 
when the English preferred white pepper to black, and 
orders came out from the India houses to their agents 
here to pay more attention to the cultivation of the white 
plant, not being aware that both grow on the same tree, 
and that the white is gathered at an earlier stage. 

More ludicrous is another story of what the London 
managers proposed to do with the white ants. One year 
there was a deficit in the exchequer, and the agent sug- 
gested that the white ants had got into the treasure- 
chest and carried off the silver, amounting to several 



FROM SINGAPORE TO HONG KONG. 247 

thousand dollars. The next ship from England brought 
a large package of files, and a letter of instructions, to 
the effect that, as the white ants could eat their way 
through everything, men must be employed to catch 
them and file off their teeth ! 



CHAPTEE XXIX. 

FROM SINGAPORE TO HONG KONG. 

AT Singapore we take on board about two hundred 
Chinese, men, women, and children, who have 
been making money here, and who are going back to 
their native land to enjoy it. While sailing up the 
China Sea we have ample time and an excellent oppor- 
tunity to study their singular traits of character. They 
pay twenty dollars each for a. passage to Hong Kong, 
boarding themselves. They have a vast amount of bag- 
gage, — more trunks than a devotee of fashion on her way 
to Newport. Each family has a small portable furnace, 
a bag of charcoal, baskets of potatoes, with rice, salt- 
fish, shrimps, crabs, and hampers of live chickens and 
ducks. They waste nothing. Standing on the bridge 
of the steamer, we can look down upon the crowd pre- 
paring and eating their breakfast. All sorts go into the 
stew-pan, — the chicken in bits, the tongue, the comb, 
the whole body down to the toes, even the intestines, 
after being well washed and cleaned ! Then bits of 
dried fish, small shrimps, dried crabs, the roe of fish, 
potatoes, small squashes, and other vegetables of the 
tropics, all cut into small pieces, mixed, stirred, and 
cooked. For utilizing odds and ends of food, the Chi- 
nese far surpass the French. 



248 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 




A Chinaman's habits at table are not such as we of 
the West are accustomed to. He holds a bowl of stew 
or rice to his lips, and pokes the food into his mouth 
with his chop-sticks. The sticks are a little larger than 
a pen-holder, are held on each side of the middle 

finger of the right 
hand, and are kept 
in place by the 
thumb. One of the 
men before us uses 
them for stirring 
the stew while it is 
cooking ; also as 
tongs, picking up 
bits of charcoal to 
add to the fire, raps 
an urchin over the 
head with them,, 
punches the sides 
of a little shaggy 
puppy who helps 
himself to some of 
the stray frag- 
ments, and who will 
go into the stew- 
pan himself one of 
these days. Not- 
withstanding this 
varied use of the sticks, the Chinaman, without taking 
the trouble to wipe them, uses them while eating his- 
breakfast. 

Their curiosity is unbounded. They are ingenious in 
their way of making knick-knacks, — puzzles, porcelain,, 
bamboo chairs and baskets, — but they cannot comprehend 
machinery. They are never weary of watching the mo- 




CHOP-STICKS 



FROM SINGAPORE TO HONG KONG. 249 

tions of the engine, and gaze by the hour, with all the 
wonder of children, upon the cranks, wheels, and pis- 
tons, which to them seem to be alive. Several 
years ago, when steamers first appeared in Chinese 
waters, the ingenious mechanics of Canton resolved to 
construct a steamboat. They rigged a junk with paddle- 
wheels, put up a funnel, painted great eyes at the bow, 
and wondered why the thing did n't start ! The outside 
was all right, but the motive power was wanting. 

They are inveterate gamesters. Here is a group which 
have finished their breakfast, and are prepared to spend 
the day in gambling, using dominos. They stake but a 
little, — play for their dinner or supper. Many of these 
men are wealthy. That one with a blue cotton cloth 
about his loins went down to Singapore years ago as a 
cooly. He lived at the cheapest possible rate ; his rice 
may have cost him a cent a day. Out in the harbor were 
plenty of fish which he could catch at night. A yard 
or two of cotton cloth made him a suit of clothes for a 
year. He earned a few dollars, left off carrying coals 
and bags and bundles, and became a huckster ; and now, 
as he lifts the lid of his chest to get money to pay his 
fare, we see a pile of silver dollars. He is rich, and is 
going home to take his comfort. He applied for a cabin 
passage, was ready to pay the regular fare of one hun- 
dred dollars, but being only half clothed, the captain 
would not assign him a state-room. 

" These are all of the lowest class," says the captain. 
"The upper classes of China wear costly clothing, and 
would deport themselves well in any society." 

The people of China look with pride upon their nation- 
ality. They know that they are the oldest nation under 
the sun. They are the civilized of the earth; all the 
rest of the human race are barbarians. They speak of 
Europeans and Americans as " foreign devils." The epi- 



250 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



thet was applied to the English first because they conr 
pelled China to take opium. They are men and we are 
devils : we can accomplish what they cannot, — can make 
steamboats, big guns, long-range rifles, revolvers, and 
terrible instruments of destruction. A foreign devil is, 
therefore, a creature of ability, but dreadfully wicked. 

We are much amused by the appearance of one of the 
Chinese women, who makes herself at home on the quar- 
ter-deck. She wears her hair in the Canton style, — heavy 

puffs over the ears, the 
back-hair in a mass, a 
lock upon the crown 
gathered in the form 
of a jug-handle, the 
general make-up called 
by foreigners " the jug- 
handle pattern." 

She has a retreating 
forehead, flat nose, wide 
mouth, high cheek- 
bones, and wears a va- 
riety of ornaments 
about her person. By 
her resolute bearing 
she evidently would 
have us comprehend 
that she belongs to an 
ancient and honorable 
race. She has opinions 
of her own, and is not afraid to declare them. 

Placing herself in front of Mrs. C, she addresses hex 
in Chinese. The captain understands the language, and 
explodes with laughter. 

" She is complimentary. Would you like to know what 
she says ? " 




EXPRESSING AN OPINION. 



FROM SINGAPORE TO HONG KONG. 251 

" Certainly." 

" She has the happiness to inform you that you are a 
red-faced, foreign female devil ! " 

The woman enjoys our merriment, and joins in it 
heartily. 

Junks are multiplying around us, — unwieldy, clumsy 
craft, with sails so constructed that a reef can be taken 
instantly without going aloft ; not one reef, but a half- 
dozen if necessary, reducing the mainsail to a small bit 
of canvas when the storm grows wild. The junk-builders 
seem to have no particular place for putting the masts. 
Sometimes there is but one, which is amidships, then 
there is a tall mast in the middle, and a short one at the 
stern. Now we come in sight of a craft with a short 
stump of a mast at the extremity of the bows, a tall 
mainmast in the centre, a shorter one farther aft, and a 
fourth fastened to the port side of the craft, as far as pos- 
sible astern. It can be unshipped at pleasure, and raised 
on the starboard side of the vessel. A framework like a 
earpenter's staging is built out several feet over the 
helm. The rudder itself is a clumsy affair of plank and 
timber, larger than that of a man-of-war. 

There is a lively chatting among the Chinese passen- 
gers. They are nearing home, and are giving thanks to 
Joss by setting gilt paper on fire and throwing it over- 
board. They are packing up their pots and kettles, gath- 
ering together their baskets and boxes, and are straining 
their eyes for the land. 

" There are the Ass's Ears," says the captain, looking 
steadily into the northwest. 

Turning our eyes in that direction we see two black 
specks on the horizon ; a nearer view shows that they are 
conical hills, which rise abruptly from the sea. Numer- 
ous other islands appear, all of them with shores so bold 
that we can run within cable's length of the wave-washed 



252 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

rocks. The Portuguese called them the Ladrones, — the 
" islands of thieves." Chinese pirates formerly lived 
upon them, and watched their opportunity to plunder 
native or foreign craft. The English have suppressed 
piracy at Malacca, but the freebooters of the China coast 
are not all dead. The junks which are in sight around 
us are all armed, for fear of these robbers of the sea, 
which even now occasionally overhaul stray coasters. 
We can count eight cannon on the deck of one, ten on 
another. The guns vary in calibre. No Armstrong or 
other breech-loaders, no Parrott or Dahlgren, but old- 
fashioned and rusty two, four, six, and eight pounders ; 
also fusees a foot long, ancient gingals, such as were in use 
three hundred years ago among Western nations. Some 
of these pieces are about as dangerous at the breech as at 
the muzzle. The old-cannon trade has been profitable in 
China, as every large junk is armed ; and the amount of 
old iron afloat, if melted and rolled into rails, would go 
far towards building a road from one end of China to the 
other. 

We have had a heavy sea all day, and dark clouds, with 
sharp lightning and grand thunderings. For seventeen 
days the Clan Alpine steamer has been our home ; and 
though we have had an agreeable captain, good service, and 
smooth seas nearly all of the time, it is with pleasure that 
we find ourselves, on Saturday evening, entering the har- 
bor of Hong Kong. AVe go in by the northern entrance. 
The thunder-clouds have rolled away, the full moon is 
rising from the sea, and we have before us a grand pano- 
rama, — high, steep hills, green from the sea-beach to the 
topmost peak, ledges of white granite, with here and there 
patches of red earth on the hillsides. Pounding a point 
of land, a mountain slope gleaming with lights bursts into 
view. We glide nearer, threading our difficult way past 
ships and boats, and drop anchor at ten o'clock, — too 
late to land before morning. 



GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF CHINA. 253 

CHAPTEE XXX. 

GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF CHINA. 

IF we draw a line from the British possessions due 
south through Dakotah and Nebraska, and along the 
western boundary of Kansas through Texas till we reach 
the Eio Grande, and follow that stream to the Gulf of 
Mexico, we have in the territory of the United States east 
of that line an area about as large as that embraced in 
the eighteen provinces of China. 

The entire territory of the United States contains a 
population of about thirty-five millions, while that of 
the eighteen provinces is peopled by about four hundred 
and twenty millions ! 

The Empire of China includes Manchuria and Corea 
on the north and northeast, Mongolia on the northwest, 
Turkestan and Thibet on the west. China proper contains 
about one million three hundred thousand square miles, the 
countries enumerated above contain three million seven 
hundred thousand additional square miles, making the 
total area under Chinese dominion five million square 
miles. This domain is nearly as large as the entire 
territory of the United States, including Alaska, also 
the Dominion of Canada, the Eepublic of Mexico, and 
the Central American States. 

These passengers who are cooking their dinner, smok- 
ing opium, and playing cards speak of their native coun- 
try as the land of Chin, Sin, or Sinae, the pronunciation 
varying with the dialects of the different provinces. 
They call themselves Chung Kwah, — " natives of the 
Middle Kingdom." Theirs is not only the mightiest 



254 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

and oldest kingdom on earth, but it is the centre of 
civilization. Their empire is hoary with age. Its his- 
tory, literature, science, and art were perfected thousands 
of years ago. It has been the centre of light to the 
world. It is the Hwa-Kwah, — " the refined," " the culti- 
vated." Its civilization was blooming like a flower when 
all Europe was in darkness, even before what we call an- 
cient civilization had taken root along the shores of the 
Mediterranean. Thus it came about that theirs is the 
" Flowery," or refined kingdom. More than that, the 
rulers of the land belonged in ancient times to a heavenly 
dynasty, — they ruled by right divine derived from the 
celestial spheres. 

The woman who addressed Mrs. C. as a foreign devil 
used the term contemptuously, and so we travellers of the 
West pay her back by calling her a " Celestial," ridiculing 
her aspiring pretensions. 

But she can point far down the vista of time and show 
us an authentic history of a nation which has continued 
more than three thousand years. She might narrate 
traditions of historical events which are said to have 
transpired four thousand seven hundred years ago, in the 
time of Fuhhi, the first emperor. According to the chro- 
nology of Archbishop Usher, that period of time would 
place the event five hundred and eight years before the 
Deluge. Among the successors of Fuhhi was Whang-ti. 
In the sixty-first year of that monarch's reign one of the 
astronomers of China established the sixty-year cycle, 
which has been continued to the present time. The sev- 
enty-sixth period ended 1863. Whang-ti began to reign, 
therefore, 2758 B. C, which was four hundred and ten 
years before the Flood, as calculated by Usher. 

The Chinese historian Meng-tse says the country 2204 
B. C. was a desert ; the lowlands were covered with water 
and the hills with trees. Yau caused them to be cut 



GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF CHINA. 



255 



down, and the swamps drained. He was a hard worker, 
spending all Ms time directing the digging of ditches and 
the clearing of forests. On three several occasions he 
tied np his hair while taking a bath, so that he might 
attend to business. The servants on the steamer, and 
the whole crowd of 
Chinese passengers, 
follow his illustri- 
ous example by coil- 
ing their pigtails on 
the crown of the 
head while at work, 
but never forgetting 
to display them at 
full length during 
their hours of rec- 
reation. 

The Deluge, as 
calculated by Usher, 
was only about fifty 
years earlier than 
this overflowing of 
Northern China, and 
it is taken for grant- 
ed by some scholars 

that the legends of the Chinese have reference to that 
event. A recent writer, who is conversant with the liter- 
ature of China, says, in regard to these annals : — 

" The earliest records of the Chinese correspond rather 
too closely with their present character to receive full 
belief ; but while they may be considered as unworthy of 
entire confidence, it will be allowed that they present an 
appearance of probability and naturalness hardly pos- 
sessed by the early annals of Greece." * 

* Confucius and the Chinese Classics, p. 20. 




CHINESE SERVANT. 



256 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Kussia is proud of Peter the Great, Prussia of Frederic, 
and China points with equal pride to the Great Yu, who 
ascended the throne 2205 B. C. He did what Yau was. 
not able to accomplish, — drained the lowlands and kept 
out the floods. 

The historians of China narrate the events of his reign. 
Confucius, writing seventeen centuries later, eulogizes 
that sovereign. On one of the mountains of Hang 
Shang, in the province of Shensi, where the ancient em- 
perors offered annual sacrifice, is an inscription cut in 
the solid rock which relates to the inundation and the 
labors of Yu in subduing it. No one knows when it 
was engraved, as it bears no date ; but it is conceded to 
be one of the oldest rock-cut inscriptions in the world, 
probably quite as ancient as the pictured obelisk of He- 
liopolis. 

" The Hia dynasty, founded by Yu the Great," says Mr. 
Loomis, " existed four hundred and thirty-nine years 
down to 1766 B. C, under seventeen monarchs, the rec- 
ords of whose reigns are very brief. Among the contem- 
porary events of importance are the call of Abraham, 
Jacob's flight to Mesopotamia, and Joseph's elevation in 
Egypt. 

"The Shang dynasty began with Chingtang, B. C. 1766 
and continued six hundred and forty-four years, under 
twenty-eight sovereigns, down to B. C. 1122. This period 
was characterized by wars among rival princes, and the 
power of the sovereign depended chiefly upon his personal 
character. The principal contemporary events were the 
exodus of the Israelites, their settlement in Palestine, 
judgeship of Othniel, Deborah, Gideon, Samson, and 
Samuel. The first monarch of this dynasty, Chingtang, 
is reputed to have paid religious worship to Shangti, the 
Supreme Euler. 

" The Chau dynasty began with Wu Wang, and contin- 



GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF CHINA. 257 

lied for eight hundred and seventy-three years, under 
thirty-five monarchy down to B. C. 249, — the longest of 
any recorded in history. The sway of many of these was 
little more than nominal, and the feudal states increased 
or diminished according to the vigor of the monarch or 
the ambition of the princes. Among the feudal states 
under the house of Chau, that of Tsin on the Northwest 
had long been the most powerful, occupying nearly a fifth 
of the country, and its inhabitants forming a tenth of the 
whole population. 

" Mention has been made of the burning of the Ancient 
Books, by the founder of the Tsin dynasty. It oc- 
curred about 212 B. C, and is always referred to as the 
greatest disaster of ancient times ; and with it was 
coupled the slaughter of many of the literati by the 
same monarch. 

" The emperor's ministers had represented to him that 
the scholars of his day gave their time to the study of 
antiquity, and to eulogizing the rulers and the customs 
of former times, instead of devoting their talents, as be- 
came them, to studying the laws and strengthening the 
power of the government under which they lived ; there- 
fore they advised that all the books should be burned, 
excepting those on medicine, divination, and husbandry. 
The Emperor followed their suggestion. 

" It cannot be supposed that a complete destruction of 
the Ancient Books of China was effected by this monarch. 

" Some remained in the hands of individuals, in whole 
or in parts, and it was a work for future scholars to col- 
lect, arrange, and reproduce these works, some of which 
reproduction may have been made, perhaps, partly by the 
aid of memory and partly by tradition." 

The Tsin dynasty began in 770 B. C, in the Northwest 
Provinces, and obtained possession of the entire empire 
250 B. C. From this monarch comes the present word 

Q 



258 OUR NEW WAY 'ROUND THE WORLD. 

" Chin " or " Sin," the word which our fellow-passengers 
use when talking of their country. 

It was while Tsin was making his conquests that Isaiah 
at Jerusalem, looking with prophetic vision down the 
future, to the time of the Messiah, wrote this sentence : * 
" Behold, these shall come from far ; and lo, these from 
the north and from the west, and these from the land 
of Sinim." 

The credible history of the Chinese reaches back to 
nearly the time of Abraham. In the year 1765, about 
the time that Jacob was falling in love with his cousin 
Rachel at Haran, we find that one E. Yin here in China 
was presenting a written memorial to his sovereign, while 
Egypt at that time had only attained to figures of beasts, 
birds, reptiles, and insects, and corresponding symbols in 
the art of writing. 

The Chinese who sailed these waters at the time that 
David was king of Israel, it is said, had just the same 
sort of a mariner's compass as that by which the un- 
wieldy junks are now navigated along the coast. 

The claims of the Chinese to an antiquity reaching far 
beyond the Flood cannot be proved, but there is no doubt 
that they are by far the oldest nation on the globe. The 
Jews, Persians, Greeks, Eomans, all have had their day 
and disappeared since Yu drained the swamps. Egypt 
and Assyria, which had a contemporaneous beginning, 
have disappeared, but China remains. The civilization 
of this land attained a high development before Rome 
became a republic. The laws, customs, manners, and 
habits of the people strike their roots deep into the 
mould of centuries. For three thousand years they have 
been an exclusive people. They were remote from the 
old nations. The Greeks knew of them. The map of 
Eratosthenes, made 250 B. C, as Strabo informs us, 

* Isaiah xlix. 12. 



GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF CHINA. 259 

located Thina at the eastern end of the world. It was 
the land of the Seres, — the Greek for worms which 
produced silk. Cotton was raised in China at least two 
hundred years before the Christian era. 

Dionysius, who translated the works of Eraksthenes, 
has this description of Thina : — 

" Nor flocks nor herds the distant Seres tends ; 
But from the flowers that in the desert bloom, 
Tinctured with every varying hue, they cull 
The glossy down, and card it for the loom." 

When Borne was in its days of affluence and power, 
the matrons of that empire were robed in silks brought 
from China by caravans over the steppes of Tartary and 
the vast regions of Central Asia. But commercial inter- 
course with China was on a limited scale, through all the 
centuries from the time of the Greeks and Eomans down 
almost to the present century. In 1624 the Dutch gained 
a settlement on the island of Formosa, and Europeans 
were made acquainted with the use of tea. In 1666 
Holland obtained, by treaty, permission to trade at Can- 
ton, Ningpo, and several other ports ; but the Chinese 
officials were haughty, overbearing, made offensive ex- 
actions, and commercial intercourse was attended with 
many difficulties. 

France, Eussia, and England subsequently opened trade. 
The commerce of the English with this country com- 
menced in 1637, through the East India Company, and 
gradually increased ; but the Chinese never lost an oppor- 
tunity of showing that they considered themselves supe- 
rior to all foreigners. 

In 1795 Lord Macartney was sent out as an ambassa- 
dor to ask the privilege of trading at the ports of Chusan, 
Ningpo, and Tientsing ; also the privilege of establishing 
a depot on one of the islands of the Bay of Canton, where 
unsold goods could be stored. But the Chinese refused to 



260 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

grant the request to the " Red-bristled barbarian tribute- 
bearer," as Lord Macartney was styled in the official 
record which has been published. They considered that 
the payment of large sums by the English merchants for 
the privilege of trading made the English nation tributary 
to China. 

Trade between the United States and China commenced 
in 1786, when a vessel of three hundred and fifty tons 
reached Canton. It rapidly increased during the first 
years of the present century, while Europe was at war. 
After the war between England and China in 1840, by 
which Great Britain obtained commercial advantages by 
treaty, Mr. Gushing was sent to Pekin by the United 
States government ; and commercial relations were opened 
in 1844, which have been harmoniously maintained to 
the present time. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

HONG KONG. 

AT sunrise we are on deck gazing upon a beautiful 
scene. The town of Hong Kong lies south of us, 
at the foot of a mountain which rises abruptly from the 
sea to the height of nearly two thousand feet. It seems 
to be a city of palaces, — large edifices, with colonnades 
and verandas, the residences of the merchants. Steamers, 
ships, and Chinese boats are all around us. Two United 
States war vessels, the Piscataqua and Maumee, have re- 
cently arrived. Farther up the bay the cross of St. George 
and the tricolor of France float in the breeze. 

Northward lies the main-land, — verdure-clad hills, 
lofty mountains, deep ravines, patches of j^ellow earth 



HONG KONG. 



261 




'262 OUR NEW WAY EOUND THE WORLD. 

here and there, contrasted with the greenness, lending 
rare beauty to the picture. 

The Bay of Naples is broader, the mountains of Leba- 
non give a loftier background to the harbor of Beyrout > 
but there are few ports which for picturesqueness and 
beauty equal that of Hong Kong. It is so completely 
land-locked that vessels are but little exposed to the 
terrific typhoons which sometimes sweep over the waters 
of China. 

The town is situated on an island eleven miles long, 
from two to five wide, and containing twenty-nine square 
miles. It is separated from the main-land by this strait, 
which forms the harbor. It was ceded to Great Britain 
in 1841, at a cost to the royal treasury of two hundred 
thousand dollars. It is a free port, and the town is in- 
creasing in population with a rapidity equal to that of 
American cities. In 1851 there were only five thousand 
inhabitants ; by the census of 1865 there were one hun- 
dred and twenty-five thousand. Europeans and Americans 
number about twenty-two hundred. The present popula- 
tion is not far from one hundred and forty thousand. It 
is a colony by itself, having a governor and a council ap- 
pointed by her Majesty. In the British Blue Book it is 
known as the Colony of Victoria, though the world over 
it goes by the name of Hong Kong, the Chinese for 
" Sweet Water." 

Twenty-two hundred vessels and steamers, with a ton- 
nage of one million one hundred thousand tons, entered 
the port last year. They are from every quarter of the 
globe. It is the great mail centre of the East, — mails to 
Europe, to Australia, Batavia, Manila, Japan, and the 
United States. Twice every month the Peninsular and 
Oriental steamers sail for Suez, every month to Australia, 
twice a month to Japan. Once a month the French mail 
arrives and departs, connecting with Siam. Two steamers 



HONG KONG. 263 

ply regularly to Calcutta. The Pacific mail leaves every 
month for San Francisco. Three or four times a week 
there are steamers up the coast to Shanghae. Every day 
there is a steamer to Canton, and another to Macao. So 
Western enterprise is making itself felt in these waters. 

The town is healthy, though situated on the north side 
of the Victoria peak, which prevents it from receiving the 
benefit of the southwest monsoons, that blow steadily 
during the summer. The only drawback is the- heat, — 
the thermometer in the summer ranging from eighty to 
ninety degrees. 

The flotilla around us are junks and sampans, with 
matting stretched on bamboos to form a little cabin, and 
another kind of craft where the family live on board, 
sleeping at night in drawers, which are closed during the 
day. In these family boats there is great economy of 
space ; every inch is occupied. Think of a father, mother, 
several sons and daughters, a grandfather and grand- 
mother, living on a craft a little larger than a ship's long- 
boat ; urchins tumbling about the deck without clothing, 
growing to manhood, to old age, rearing families of their 
own, their sisters living with them till married. Here 
they eat, sleep, work, play, drink ,tea, gamble, — here to- 
day, to-morrow somewhere else, — apparently happy and 
contented with their lot. 

We take a seat in one of the sampans, while our bag- 
gage is put into another. The captain of our boat is a 
healthy looking woman of thirty-five or forty, with a wide 
mouth, showing a superb set of teeth. She sits at the 
helm, not having room enough to stand, while her hus- 
band and three sons ply the oars. The captain of the 
other sampan is her daughter, a girl of about eighteen, 
with bright black eyes, regular and interesting features, 
and a bewitching smile. She is lithe and agile, and 
makes the oar bend in her hands as she dips it in the 



264 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



wave. She seems to be the admiral of the two boats, 
giving orders about the stowing of the baggage. Per- 
haps she has this exalted command because she can 
speak a few words of English. 

Our admiral looks over to us with laughing eyes, and 
as we approach the wharf, courteously lies by till we 
are on shore. 

We are welcomed by a crowd of coolies, who are ready 
to seize our luggage to carry it to the hotel. They leap 




THEREBY HANGS A TAIL." 



on our admiral's sampan. Four of them seize our one 
small trunk, three grasp the carpet-bag, and there is a 
tussle between two others for the roll of shawls. A 
dozen more are crowding up, but find their match in the 
plucky woman, who pitches 3 them right and left, slaps 
one in the face, gives another a vigorous punch in the 
ribs, pulls the pigtail of the third, and stands sentry 
till we are ready to move, then accepts her fee with a 
smile and a courtesy, and does not ask for bakshish. 
The monks in the churches of Italy, the Arabs of Egypt, 
the vergers in Westminster Abbey, might take a lesson in 
politeness and good breeding from this China girl. 



HONG KONG. 265 

A few steps, and we are in the Hong Kong Hotel, — a 
new building, large, spacious, well arranged and fur- 
nished, — superior in these respects to any hotel we 
have seen east of Marseilles. 

It is Sunday morning ; after weeks of deprivation 
•of Sabbath service, it is a pleasure to hear the church- 
bell, and to enter a house of worship. There are no pub- 
Tic coaches in Hong Kong, and not many private ones. 
A few of the Englishmen have dog-carts, and other 
fantastic vehicles equally uncomfortable. It is hardly 
worth while to keep carriages where the longest possible 
drive is not over five miles ; so everybody rides in sedan- 
chairs, which are carried by two Chinamen, or, if the dis- 
tance is great, by four. The chair is a bamboo box, with 
a light framework ; it has green painted canvas to shelter 
us from the sun, and curtains at the side that may be 
rolled up or let down at pleasure, and is supported by 
two long, springing bamboo poles, which the bearers place 
on their shoulders. 

We are lifted from the ground, find ourselves springing 
up and down, and moving along with a wave-like motion. 
We cannot help laughing outright at this queer mode 
of travelling, — shut up in a hen-coop, carried by men in 
blue cotton blouses, shoes with soles an inch thick, that 
turn up at the toes, and wearing hats with brims three 
feet in diameter, curving up from circumference to centre 
like the lid of a teapot, each bearer having a pigtail 
hanging down his back like a bell-rope. 

We are in a procession of sedans ; men and women are 
bobbing up and down before and behind all the way to 
the church. It is so novel an experience, that we can 
hardly tell whether we are in or out of the body, though 
we know that we are in a sedan. It puts us to dreaming 
of old times, when men were borne about the streets of 
London in such conveyances, with link-boys going before 
12 



266 



OUR KtfW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



them in dark nights ; and recalls the scene of Mr. Pick- 
wick, at Ipswich, on his way to the magistrate's against 
his will, and giving utterance to his indignation in a 
speech to the crowd. 





HOW WE GO TO CHURCH. 



Arriving at the church, we mid the space around it as 
closely packed with sedans as a market-place or poultry- 
fair with coops and baskets. 

The illusion that we have somehow got hack into a 
past age is not dispelled, but rather increased, when we 
step out of the sedan and enter the church beneath a 
portico supported by tall pillars, and look up the aisle and 
see beautiful stained-glass windows, and a dozen punkas 
suspended by cords from the roof, swinging backward and 
forward with a gentle motion. We hear the deep notes 
of the organ, the sweet tones of a choir of boys, the voice 
of the clergyman, and the responses of the congregation ; 
and there is such a mingling of the past and present, old 
and new, sober and funny things, that we wonder whether 
it is reality or illusion. 



opium. 267 

The Sabbath is well observed in Hong Kong by the 
European population. The wholesale Chinese merchants 
close their places of business, not from reverence for the 
day, but because they cannot trade with the Europeans. 
The retail shops in the native quarters are open, and 
business goes on there as on other days. The shoemakers 
and joiners are at their benches ; the huckster, with his 
baskets suspended from a bamboo over his shoulders, 
looking like a walking pair of grocer's scales, cries his 
vegetables as on all other days of the week. There are 
two services at the English church, also mass in the 
morning and vespers in the evening at the Catholic 
cathedral. The Chinese theatres are open, and there is 
the ever-lively scene in the harbor. 



CHAPTEE XXXII. 

OPIUM. 

THE opium saloons at night are crowded with 
smokers. Looking in we behold some reclining 
on couches ; others lying at full length on mats, with 
bamboo pillows under their heads. The opium is first 
reduced from a solid to a liquid form by boiling it in 
water. When ready for the pipe, it is about the color 
and consistency of tar. It is prepared and put up in 
little tin boxes by the dealers, being brought from India 
in the solid cake. It is so powerful in its effects that the 
hundredth part of an ounce is sufficient to intoxicate a 
beginner, though an old stager can stand a quarter of an 
ounce. If the drug is used regularly at a certain hour 
every day, the smoker in a short time cannot get past 



268 OUR NEW WAY EOUND THE WORLD. 

that hour without his pipe. He becomes restless, ner- 
vous, feverish, irritable, out of sorts, and endures terrible 
torture. If he takes a few whiffs, he is the happiest of 
mortals. He passes from purgatory to paradise. Once 
form the habit and there is no breaking it off. The 
victim is doomed. It is an expensive luxury, one in 
which the very poor cannot indulge. It costs an in- 
veterate smoker about fifteen dollars per month, and 
the vice in a short time leads to listlessness, indolence, 
neglect of business, incapacity, disinclination for labor, 
disease, and horrible death. The Chinese have a saying 
that opium-smokers make the day night and the night 
day. Those who give themselves up to the pipe are 
called "opium devils." 

The future historian will mark its introduction into 
China as one of the saddest incidents of its history. 

In 1773, about the time that the people of Boston were 
throwing British tea into the harbor, the East India Com- 
pany were disposing of their first small venture of opium 
at this port. From the topmasts of their vessels the 
sailors had looked out upon these fertile valleys, and be- 
held them white with poppy-blooms, from which opium 
was manufactured for the wealthy classes. A chest of 
opium in the market of Canton was worth $ 500 ; but 
the banks of the Ganges were more fertile than these 
mountain slopes, the climate more genial, and a chest of 
the drug could be produced for $ 100. Here was a chance 
for speculation. No other product of India would yield 
four hundred per cent profit. 

The trade rapidly increased, and in 1800 amounted to 
two thousand chests per annum. Up to that year no 
action had been taken by the Chinese government against 
its introduction ; but the withdrawal of coin from the 
empire, and the demoralization of the wealthy classes 
and public officials who had the means of indulging their 



opium. 269 

appetites, induced the emperor to prohibit its manu- 
facture and sale. Confiscation of property and death 
were the penalties, not only for those who cultivated and 
sold, but for those who smoked the drug. 

Notwithstanding these prohibitory measures, the con- 
sumption still increased. Armed English vessels were 
stationed in the Canton Eiver, which supplied smugglers' 
boats, also well-armed and ready for battle with the Chi- 
nese war-junks. Officials were bribed, mandarins con- 
ciliated, the imperial laws set at defiance. 

The government at Pekin used every effort to stop 
the sale, while the East India Company employed every 
means to stimulate it. The Chinese authorities, when 
fortunate enough to catch smugglers or dealers, strangled 
them in front of the English factories ; but the death of 
a Chinaman now and then did not deter the English from 
violating the laws of a weaker nation, and the illicit sale 
increased from year to year, till in 1840 it amounted to' 
forty thousand chests per annum. 

In 1839 the Chinese government determined to break 
up the traffic at all hazards. Lin, the imperial commis- 
sioner at Canton, pushed matters so vigorously that the 
trade for a time nearly ceased. 

The emperor demanded a surrender of all the opium 
in the hands of the English, which at the command 
of Admiral Elliot was given up, and twenty thousand 
chests destroyed, — at a cost of six million dollars to 
the imperial treasury ! The English merchants who had 
dealt in the article signed an obligation not to re-engage 
in the traffic, and then immediately violated it ! The 
trade being revived, the Chinese officials became insolent, 
overbearing, and the merchants were subjected to hu- 
miliating exactions, exceedingly galling to high-spirited 
Britons. The result of it all was the war of 1840, waged 
ostensibly to avenge insult to the British flag, but in.. 



270 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

reality to force opium upon a government laboring to 
suppress the traffic. 

It was an easy matter for the British fleet to knock 
down the Bogue forts at the entrance to the Canton Biver, 
and to take possession of Canton, and all the other mari- 
time cities. Avarice, supported by fleets and armies, ac- 
complished its end. So Christian England dealt with 
heathen China ! 

How stinging the rebuke the emperor gave when asked 
to license the sale of opium at Hong Kong : — 

" It is true," said he, " I cannot prevent the introduction 
of the flowing poison. Grain-seeking and corrupt men 
will for profit and sensuality defeat my wishes ; but noth- 
ing will induce me to derive a revenue from the vice 
and misery of my people." 

Her Majesty's late treasurer at Hong Kong, Mr. Mar- 
tin, gives utterance to the following noble outburst of 
indignation in regard to the course pursued by Eng- 
land : — 

" The records of wickedness since the world was created 
furnish no parallel to the wholesale murders which the 
British nation have been, and still are, hourly committing 
in China. 

" What has been done on the subject ? Have we simply 
remained passive, and allowed the crimes and the mur- 
ders caused by the opium-trade to go on silently, un- 
noticed and unopposed by her Majesty's government ? 
We cannot even allege the poor, miserable plea of wink- 
ing as a government against a crime which it is pretended 
could not be checked. On the contrary, the representa- 
tive of Queen Victoria has recently converted the small 
barren rock which we occupy on the coast of China in- 
to a vast ' opium - smoking shop ' ; he has made it the 
' Gehenna of the waters,' where iniquities which it is a 
pollution to name cannot only be perpetrated with im- 



opium. 271 

punity, but are absolutely licensed in the name of our 
gracious sovereign, and protected by the titled represent- 
ative of her Majesty ! 

" Better, far better, infinitely better, abjure the name 
of Christianity, call ourselves heathens, idolaters of the 
' golden calf,' worshippers of the ' evil one.' 

" Let us do this, and we have then a principle for our 
guide, — the acquisition of money at any cost, at any 
sacrifice. Why, the slave-trade was merciful compared 
to the opium-trade. We did not destroy the bodies of 
the Africans, for it was our immediate interest to keep 
them alive ; we did not debase their natures, corrupt 
their minds, nor destroy their souls. But the opium- 
seller slays the body after he has corrupted, degraded, 
and annihilated the moral being of unhappy sinners, — 
while every hour is bringing new victims to a Moloch 
which knows no satiety, and where the English murderer 
and the Chinese suicide vie with each other in offering 
at his shrine." * 

No excuse can be offered for the conduct of England 
in forcing opium upon the Chinese. It will ever stand 
forth in history as the high-handed barbarian act of a 
nation which puts forth the highest claims to Christian 
civilization. 

Here are the smokers, two of them lying on a mat 
with pillows under their heads, a little tin box of the 
opium, a lighted lamp, and a pipe between them, all ready 
for a descent to their infernal paradise. The pipe has a 
clay bowl and a wooden stem eighteen inches long. One 
of the smokers dips a wire into the opium-paste, takes 
up a globule the size of a pea, puts it into the bowl, 
holds it to the flame, draws the smoke into the lungs 
through the mouth, letting it out through the nose. A 
half-dozen whiffs consume the globule. He refills the 

* Martin's China. 



272 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



pipe, hands it to his companion, who takes his turn. 
It is a study to watch the coming on of the happy 
feeling. At the commencement they are haggard and 
woebegone ; the hanker is on them ; they are restless 
and uneasy. A few whiffs, and they feel better, — re- 
freshed and invigorated ; a few more, and they are happy ; 
another turn, and they are silly. One of them has a 




OPIUM-SMOKERS. 



countenance now which is a good counterpart of the 
drunken Bacchus recently excavated from the ruins of 
the temple of that god under the shadow of the Acropolis 
at Athens. He grins, screws up his eyes, giggles, makes 
funny faces, laughs, not broadly, with legitimate humor, 
but in a manner indicative of the last stage of silliness. 
Another pull at the pipe and he is down in his paradise 
among the gods and flowers. He will be happy awhile ; 
but there is a hell beyond, with devils innumerable and 
tortures unutterable. 



FROM HONG KONG TO CANTON. 



27o 



CHAPTEK XXXIII. 



FROM HONG KONG TO CANTON, 



LINE of American-built steamers, like those plying 
on Long Island Sound, lias been established between 
Hong Kong and Canton. Coolies take us in sedans from 
the hotel to the wharf, and set us down amid a chattering 
crowd, some rushing on board the steamer, others bidding 
their friends farewell. A few Europeans and Americans 
have the forward deck to themselves, the first-class cabin 
passengers occupying that portion of the steamer. The 
upper deck aft is 



filled with first- 
class Chinamen, 
most of whom pass 
the hours while on 
board by smoking 
or in gambling. 
Among them we 
notice some who 
take pride in wear- 
ing long finger- 
nails. They trim 
those of the first 
and second fingers 
of the right hand, 
but allow the third 
and fourth to re- 
main uncut. The 
accompanying illus- 
tration, engraved 







NATURAL OI'.NAMKXTS 



12* 



274 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

from a photograph, will show the length which these 
appendages sometimes attain. 

Second-class natives cram the lower deck. Although 
they might make the trip on junks at a third the cost 
of a passage on the steamer, they pay the higher price. 
It is a noteworthy fact that, although the nation has made 
little progress for centuries, and stagnation is the normal 
condition of things, the people are quick to accept some 
of the appliances of modern civilization. They patronize 
the steamers, and if railroads are introduced there will be 
no lack of passengers, for they will be as eager to ride as 
the Hindoos. 

" No Chinaman," said a gentleman at Hong Kong, 
" goes on foot if he has money enough to pay for a ride." 

We steam out into the harbor, pass ships of war, steam- 
ers, junks, innumerable fishing-boats, and gain the bay 
which lies west of the island of Hong Kong. 

The town of Macao, where the Portuguese, in advance 
of all Western nations, obtained a foothold in China, lies 
upon the southern side of the bay. It has lost commer- 
cial importance, and is now a seaside resort for the Euro- 
peans of Hong Kong. A steamer owned by an American 
gentleman plies between that port and Canton. It makes 
its appearance from among the small islands, and follows 
in our wake up the bay. 

It is fifty miles from "Hong Kong to the Bogue forts. 
They are in ruins now, the shattered blocks of granite 
lying just as they were left at the close of the bombard- 
ment in 1856. The grass is springing fresh and green 
where the mandarins once marshalled their soldiers. The 
scenery here is charming ; no high mountains, but a suc- 
cession of hills, which, combined with the water views, 
make it a locality of rare beauty. Thus far we have 
been sailing northerly, but now turn toward the west, 
with the river deep enough for the largest ship to reach 
Whampoa, the port of Canton. 



FROM HONG KONG TO CANTON. 



275 



We look across a point of land, over wide fields, green 
with young rice and sugar-cane, and behold a nine-storied 
pagoda, rising like a tall light-house above the alluvial 
expanse, — one of the monuments of the time when the 
empire was in its glory. 




MAPOP 










The town of Whampoa is an uninviting place, many 
of the houses being built on bamboo poles thrust into the 
mud. A dozen foreign vessels are at anchor, taking in 
cargoes of tea, or waiting their turn in the dry-dock, 
which foreign capital has built on the southern bank of 
the river, where there are also extensive repair-shops for 
steamers. 

A little farther and we are up with a great fleet of 
salt junks, with enormous eyes at the bow, with flam- 
ing dragons painted on the sides, — so lumbering and 



276 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

crazy to all appearance, that a single wave would crusi 
them ; but they sail boldly out to sea, down to the Gulf 
of Tonquin, to the salt-works of the western coast, and 
return with full cargoes. The article is a monopoly con- 
trolled by government, and yields a large revenue to 
the mandarins ; for, like the whiskey inspection of the 
United States, a small percentage only reaches the gov- 
ernment treasury. 

Passing these we behold Canton, the city of pongee 
silks such as our grandmothers wore, lacquered ware and 
fire-crackers, of tea and ivory, Joss-houses and pagodas, 
with a million inhabitants. The main portion of the 
town is on the north bank, in a bend of the river ; there 
is a suburb on the south bank, or rather on an island 
called Honam, but it is all Canton. The name was 
given to the place by the Portuguese, who called it after 
the province of Kwang-tong, of which it is the chief 
city. The Chinese designate it Sheng-cheng, " the capi- 
tal of the province." 

Boats are moored along the shore or swing at anchor 
in the stream. They swarm around us, loaded to the 
water's edge with chests of tea. There is a struggle for 
the first chance alongside the steamer. In one we see 
a fat old woman and a young girl, working with all 
their might the great sculling oar astern, while the hus- 
band and his two sons are pulling hard at the side-oars. 
Another, commanded by a little woman, shoots suddenly 
ahead of the heavier craft. There are loud words, fierce 
looks, and a shaking of fists as they pass ; then, as the 
steamer drops anchor and swings round with the tide, a 
third, piled with tea-chests, pokes its nose up to the gang- 
way, crowds the others away, and secures the position. 
In the West, such struggling would probably be accom- 
panied by bruised faces and bleeding noses, but these 
easy-going Celestials wage only a war of words. Sel- 
dom do they come to blows over such provocations. 



FROM HONG KONG TO CANTON. 277 

Many of these boats are occupied by families, and ter- 
rible accidents sometimes happen to them. Often they 
are drawn under the great paddle-wheels of a steamer, 
and the frail crafts smashed to kindlings. It is the de- 
molishing of a house, the breaking up of a home. "While 
the poor wretches are struggling in the water, instead of 
picking them up, their neighbors are intent upon plun- 
dering the wreck ! This is one of the worst phases of 
Chinese character. Human life is cheap because there 
is so much of it, and property is dear because there is so 
little of it ; and they seek to save that which will do 
them the most good. They will draw in a trunk, and 
help themselves to its contents, before throwing a rope 
to the owner. 

Beyond the boats we see a vast collection of mean 
houses. Here and there a square brick tower rises 
above the tiled roofs ; these are pawnbrokers' estab- 
lishments. Away out on the hills, — the White Cloud 
Hills as they are called, — toward the north, is the 
outer wall of the city, and a great square building in the 
Chinese style of architecture, called the " Five-storied 
Pagoda." Nearer is a tall, gray edifice, like a light- 
house, — a pagoda of the ancient times ; westward rises 
a spire, — that of the English Church. No other, not a 
dome or tower, to relieve the dreary monotony of low 
roofs. A few flag-staffs, and here and there a building 
higher than the mass of houses ; but, other than these, 
there is nothing to attract the eye. 

About fifty Europeans and Americans reside in Can- 
ton ; their houses are in strong contrast to those of the 
Chinese. They are large, stately edifices, with all the 
comforts and conveniences to be found in European or 
American homes. These houses are owned by the chief 
mercantile firms, and have all been built since 1860. The 
old factories, as the former establishments were called, 



278 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

were pillaged and burned in 1856. Then came the war 
between China and England and France, in which the 
United States also took part, followed by the new treaty 
throwing open five ports. The merchants returned to 
Canton and erected these princely residences. There is 
one hotel, but the accommodations are miserable; and 
American visitors are kindly cared for by Eussell & Co., 
Heard & Co., Oliphant & Co., or Law & Co. These firms 
have their principal houses at Hong Kong and Shanghae, 
which have become the two great ports of China ; they 
also have branch houses in all the treaty ports, and at 
Japan. Most of the commerce between the United 
States and China passes through their hands, and in the 
silk business they have a large share of the French trade. 
There are other American firms, but these are the prin- 
cipal ones. Before the war Canton was the chief port 
of China, but the business has gradually been transferred 
to Hong Kong. 

The steamer has not been at the wharf five min- 
utes before the head of the firm of Eussell & Co. at this 
place, Mr. J. M. Forbes, is on board to conduct us to 
their house. It is a large, new building, standing on the 
ground formerly occupied by the old factories. We work 
our way through a dense crowd of coolies, gamblers, for- 
tune-tellers, hucksters, and idlers, at the lower end of Old 
China Street, enter the .premises, and feel ourselves at 
home, through the urbanity and kindness of our host. 

Before strolling through the city, let us briefly review 
the life of the extraordinary man whose influence has 
been so powerful in moulding the character of this 
people. 




TEMPLE OF CONFUCIUS. 



THE INFLUENCE OF CONFUCIUS. 279 

CHAPTER XXXTV. 

THE INFLUENCE OF CONFUCIUS. 

FEW men have exercised a wider influence than Confu- 
cius. He was born 549 years before Christ, and was 
contemporary with the Prophets Daniel and Zechariah. 
At the time Daniel was interpreting to the troubled king 
of Babylon the mysterious handwriting which appeared 
on the wall of his palace, Confucius was a lad playing 
in Northeastern China, in what is now the province of 
Shangtung. Socrates and Cincinnatus were not born till 
one hundred years later. His wisdom was not borrowed 
from Greece or Borne, whose sages all came after him. 
His simplicity was equal to that of Socrates, his political 
system more enduring than that of Solon. His father, 
who was prime minister of the province of Loo, died 
while Confucius was a child, and the son was educated 
by his grandfather. He was married at nineteen, but 
after a year of wedded life was divorced. When only 
twenty-one years of age he was appointed to a high posi- 
tion as superintendent of a department of internal rev- 
enue. Those were the days of form and ceremony. 
Officials thought more of their dignity, comfort, and ease 
than of their duties. Affairs were very much wound 
round with red tape. He cut through old customs, intro- 
duced reforms, turned out fossilized and venal officials, 
and reorganized the department. The revenue which had 
been pocketed by the officers found its way into the 
treasury. Having won the approbation of his sovereign, 
he was appointed to a higher position, as superintendent 
of grain. Men who are turned out of office always have 



280 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

a grudge against the person who displaces them. Corrupt 
office-holders cannot tolerate an honest colleague, and 
success begets envy. The favor of the sovereign and the 
applause of the people were offset in the case of Confu- 
cius by the enmity of the mandarins, who were able to 
drive him from office. 

He travelled in his own country, and studied the habits 
and customs of the people of the different provinces. 
Finding vice and immorality prevalent everywhere, he 
took the side of virtue, rallied good and true men around 
him, was eventually called to court and made prime 
minister, with almost absolute authority. There was an 
overhauling of public affairs, correction of abuses, aban- 
donment of old customs, clearing out of dishonest offi- 
cials. They made every effort possible to get rid of the 
new minister, but he was nearest the throne, and had a 
strong hand. The state coach with its new driver crushed 
all who threw themselves in its way. Some mandarins 
lost their heads, others were sent into exile. 

China at that time was composed of nine provinces, 
instead of eighteen as at present, each governed by a 
prince. The wise administration of affairs in the province 
of Loo, of which Confucius was prime minister, soon gave 
it a superiority that provoked the enmity of surrounding 
states. 

The prince of Loo, not unlike many other princes of so- 
called royal blood, who have lived since his time, thought 
less of virtue than of the voluptuous damsels which were 
sent to his court by a neighboring ruler, who understood 
the weak side of his royal brother. 

Through woman's charms Samson lost his eyes and 
hair, David his uprightness, Solomon his exalted wisdom, 
Mark Antony an empire, Confucius his place at court. 

" I think it was a Persian king 

Who used to say, that evermore 



THE INFLUENCE OF CONFUCIUS- 281 

In human life each evil thing 

Comes of the sex that men adore ; 
In brief, that nothing e'er befell 

To harm or grieve our hapless race, 
But, if you probe the matter well, 

You '11 find a woman in the case ! " 

Let this not be construed as a calumny against the 
better half of the human race. Antony was weaker than 
Cleopatra, and the prince who sent Confucius into exile 
more foolish than the- damsels who captivated him by 
their wiles. 

At the age of fifty-six Confucius laid aside the robes 
of office, left the province, travelling westward, mel- 
ancholy and depressed, hunted by his enemies, who, 
having driven him from power, determined to take his 
life. He was harassed from town to town, from the 
plains to the mountains, from the public road to out-of- 
the-way places, and forced to conceal himself in lonely 
retreats, where he bemoaned his lot in verse, as thus 
translated : — 

" Through the valley howls the blast, 
Drizzling rain falls thick and fast, 
Homeward goes the youthful bride 
O'er the wild, — crowds by her side. 
How is it, azure heaven, 
From my home I thus am driven, 
Through the land my way to trace, 
With no certain dwelling-place 1 
Dark, dark, the minds of men ! 
Worth in vain comes to their ken. 
Hasten on my term of years : 
Old age, desolate, disappears." 

He gathered a band of disciples, taught them moral 
aphorisms, inculcated virtue, composed hymns, and col- 
lected the writings of the ancients. About fifteen years 
before Ezra annotated the Old Testament Scriptures, Con- 
fucius collated the five Sacred Books of China, which 
from that time to the present, through twenty-three cen- 



282 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

turies, have been looked upon by the millions of this 
land with a reverence akin to that given to the Old Testa- 
ment by the Jews and the Christian nations of modern 
times. Four other volumes were added to the Sacred 
Books by his disciples, about three hundred years before 
Christ, which are historical, biographical, and poetical, 
with aphorisms, moral precepts, and principles of political 
economy. In one respect they are in marked contrast to 
the Jewish Scriptures, the religious element being almost 
wholly wanting. 

Confucius himself worshipped the spirits of his ances- 
tors, also heaven and earth. He believed that heaven 
had power to govern, reward, and punish, and he offered 
prayers and sacrifices to the Shang-Tai, or High Euler. 

The virtues taught by him were benevolence, righteous- 
ness, propriety, knowledge, and faith. This moral pre- 
cept inculcated by him, " What you do not want clone to^ 
yourself, do not do to others," is the negative side of the 
teachings of the Saviour, in the Sermon on the Mount, 
delivered nearly four hundred and fifty years later. 

All questions relating to morals and government are- 
referred to the writings of Confucius, and those of the 
ancients revised by him, as the ultimate authority. 

The civilization of the present time — habits, customs, 
social life, society in all its relations — is controlled by 
a literature coeval with that of ancient Greece. The old 
civilization has not been changed by the succession of 
dynasties, Tartar conquest, or Buddhism. Like a river 
flowing from the mountains to the sea, through two 
thousand years it has pursued its almost unvarying 
course. 

These are important considerations for us to keep in 
view while wandering through the great cities, and ob- 
serving the manners and customs of the people. 



SOUTHERN CHINA. 283 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

SOUTHERN CHINA. 

EIGHT of the eighteen provinces of China lie south 
of the Yangtse-kiang Eiver. The city of Canton is 
the commercial metropolis for Kwangton and Kwangsi, 
which are, respectively, about as large as New York 
and Pennsylvania. The trade of the other six provinces 
centres at other points, — either on the coast or on the 
Yangtse. The Canton Eiver is the chief avenue of com- 
merce for the two provinces already named. Its rise is in 
the southwest part of the empire. 

Very little is known of Yunane, which has an area 
equal to that of Ohio and Indiana combined, except that 
it is mountainous, and the source of half a dozen great 
rivers, which discharge themselves into the Gulfs of 
Tonquin and Siam. The Yangtse runs along its north- 
ern border. It is sparsely settled, — inhabited by wild 
tribes, who give slight allegiance to the emperor. In 
this province the Taeping rebellion began. The people 
are hardy, brave, powerful, — the Swiss of China, — and 
almost always in rebellion. 

The northern boundary of Kwangton and Kwangsi 
is a chain of mountains, which has a general direction 
east and west, and which separates these provinces from 
the central ones of the empire. This mountain range 
was a barrier against the armies of Tartary, in the times 
of the old dynasties, and by it these provinces were able 
to resist for a long while the conquerors who finally 
obtained the mastery. Kwangton has five hundred miles 
of sea-coast, alluvial lands along the rivers, fertile valleys,. 



284 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

and sunny hillsides. Canton is the richest, and said to 
he the oldest, city of the empire. 

The river is the highway, and upon it float innumerable 
junks and sampans. Were it the cool season, — October 
or November, — a delightful trip might be made in a 
boat, at comparatively small expense, to the interior of 
Kwangsi. Were we to go up the stream about forty 
miles we should find a manufacturing town which has 
a population of twenty thousand. We are not to pic- 
ture great ranges of brick buildings six stories high, or 
think of the click and clatter of machinery, as at Lowell 
or Lawrence, when we speak of Chinese manufacturing 
towns. Their manufactures, whether of silk goods or 
grass-cloth, are carried on by individuals, each man work- 
ing in his own house. Factory organization is unknown. 
The beautiful silk gauzes, the damask cloths that are still 
the admiration of the world, are woven in the mean 
dwellings of the poor weavers, where cat and kittens, dog 
and puppies, which play with the children, are raised for 
food, and where rats are trapped to satisfy the cravings 
of hunger. The looms which turn out these fine fabrics 
are of the rudest construction. The whole family, from 
grandparent to grandchild, has a hand in the spinning, 
dyeing, and weaving. 

Ancient pagodas line the banks, and tower aloft as con- 
spicuous landmarks on the hills. They are the relics of 
a past age, — of the time when the empire was in its 
glory, — when public-spirited individuals, wishing to be - 
kept in remembrance, reared these edifices. Very few 
of them are now used as temples ; they are moss-grown 
and time-worn, and fast going to decay. 

The river is winding in its course. From the White 
Cloud Hills, which lie north of the city, it may be seen 
for a long distance, as the Connecticut from Mount Tom 
or the Hudson from the Highlands. 



SOUTHERN CHINA. 285 

The cities along the bank are numerous, and all carry 
on a brisk trade with Canton. European fabrics, cottons 
from Manchester, glass-ware, especially lamps, Yankee 
clocks, and a great variety of articles from the West, are 
to be found in these interior towns. The people utilize 
the tributary streams by dams and sluices for irrigation, 
and for the rearing of fish, which is extensively carried 
on. The steamer which plies between Canton and Hong 
Kong usually carries a tank filled with live fish, weighing 
from one to two pounds, taken from ponds up river and 
transported alive to market, where we see eels, shad, 
bass, sole, and other varieties. The Chinese understand 
that fish, to be good, must be taken at once from the 
tank to the frying-pan. We shall hardly care to follow 
them in the matter of cats and dogs, but the fresh-fish 
dealers in the markets of the United States have some- 
thing to learn in regard to the rearing and sale of the 
finny tribe. 

The river is navigable for steamers to the borders of 
Kwangsi, though thus far no attempt has been made to 
supersede the junks, there being no treaty port above 
Canton. The visit of Ambassador Burlingame to the 
Western nations resulted in the opening of the whole 
empire to foreigners, and Canton, Yangtse, and other 
streams were free to steam navigation, and railroads were 
introduced. 

Around Canton and throughout the province of Kwang- 
ton the people generally can read and write, but farther 
inland there is more ignorance, less refinement, and a 
lower civilization. 

The staple exports of the Kwangton district are silk 
and tea ; the imports rice, opium, and cotton goods. But 
Canton is losing its trade. The rebellion here and the 
rebellion in America have both had a damaging effect 
upon this city. The Taepings from the neighboring prov- 



286 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

ince overrun the district, ravaging it with fire and sword. 
Then came the war in the United States, with its dis- 
turbing influences in the cotton market ; but more than 
this, the opening of Hankow as a treaty port on the 
Yangtse in the very heart of China, drawing north- 
ward goods which formerly came to Canton, and then the 
growth of Hong Kong as a free port, have deprived Can- 
ton of its pre-eminence. In 1860 the imports amounted 
to $18,400,000, the exports to $16,200,000. In 1865 
the imports were less than $ 8,000,00, and the exports 
about $13,000,000. Yet this statement alone does not 
convey a correct impression. There is great facility for 
illicit traffic. Not one third of the opium sold in Canton 
passes through the custom-house. Just before reaching 
Canton, on our passage hither from Hong Kong, we saw 
a box tumble from the steamer into the river, which was. 
picked up by a boat and taken ashore. It undoubtedly 
contained opium, and was pitched overboard by one of 
the Chinese passengers, who had his confederates waiting. 
The Chinese officials are as willing to take bribes as in- 
spectors of customs in more civilized lands. The coast 
swarms with smugglers. Salt is almost the only article 
which cannot be got in surreptitiously. 

The country south of Canton, between here and Ton- 
quin, is celebrated for its silk. The hills are covered 
with mulberry-trees. The silk is purchased by the mer- 
chants of Canton, mainly on French account. Dealers 
come with their samples, showing them to the house of 
Eussell & Co., who have an inspector, a young man from 
Lyons, who from early childhood has been looking at the 
texture of silk, and can tell at a glance or a touch its quality 
and value. The Chinese have not yet learned that hon- 
esty is the best policy, and that it is more profitable to 
produce a good article than a poor one. They have pecu- 
liar traits of character. We can trust them with any 



SOUTHERN CHINA. 287 

amount of money or merchandise ; but tender them a 
dollar in payment for anything purchased, and they will 
adroitly substitute a counterfeit piece, and hand it to you 
with an air of innocence. So in silk producing ; if they 
can palm off a little of inferior quality with the good, 
they think it clear gain. 

The principal exports to the United States from this 
port are tea, fire-crackers, and matting, and the imports 
Spanish coin and California flour. 

The Chinese live principally on rice, but they have 
tasted the wheat of California, and possibly this may 
become a profitable trade in the future. 

Macao formerly had extensive dealings with Canton, 
but the Portuguese, who reside there, have lost their an- 
cient vigor. ' It is a decaying town, beautifully situated 
on a peninsula, presenting a noble front to the harbor. 
The location is superior in every respect to that of Hong 
Kong. The harbor is sheltered from the sea, and spa- 
cious and deep enough for the largest vessels ; the climate 
is salubrious ; the buildings plain solid structures, less 
imposing than those of Hong Kong. 

Aside from the beauty of the place, there is very little 
to interest a visitor at Macao. It has had its day, and, 
like Portugal, has gone to sleep. Its trade now is insig- 
nificant compared with that of former years, when it was 
the only port on the South China coast. It is now the 
place from which nearly all the coolies are exported. 
The Portuguese take more readily to dealing in human 
flesh and blood than any other nation. Formerly they 
dealt in slaves, but now in coolies. The Chinese govern- 
ment has interdicted the trade, but Portugal, holding 
Macao, can carry it on in defiance of Pekin, just as Eng- 
land can the opium traffic. 

It may be asked how the coolies can be obtained in 
violation of law. The answer will show the weakness 



288 



OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 



of the Imperial government. Here in the provinces of 
Kwangton and Kwangsi, especially in the southern por- 
tions bordering on Tonquin, there is very little govern- 
mental power ; the people are divided into clans, and are 
subject to chiefs, between whom there are frequent wars. 
The prisoners taken are brought to Macao and sold to 
the Portuguese by half-castes, who are travelling through 
the country continually stirring up strife. 

In addition to 
those thus pro- 
cured many are 
kidnapped. The 
coast swarms with 
pirates. Some now 
in sight quite likely 
are of this charac- 
ter. They purchase 
their cannon of 
English merchants 
at Hong Kong, sail 
along the coast, at- 
tack and plunder 
other craft, bring 
the crews to some 
out - of - the - way 
place, and sell them 
a cool? to cooly-traders, the 

whole proceeding 
being winked at by the government of Macao, which 
rests itself on an " Emigration Act " regulating the 
traffic. 

Another source of supply is from the gambling-houses. 
The Chinese are such inveterate gamesters that, when 
their money is gone, they stake themselves. It is the 
custom of the Chinese to pledge their bodies whenever 




SOUTHERN CHINA. 289 

they have no other security to offer their creditors. There 
are " crimps " in the employ of the cooly-dealers, who 
frequent the gambling-hells of the interior towns, ready 
to advance a trifle of money to the gamblers on their 
bodies ; when they have lost themselves by play, they 
are brought to Macao, threatened by the crimp with 
death if they do not give proper answers to the " com- 
missioner." A few questions are asked. 

" Do you go willingly ? " 

"Yes." 

" Of your own accord ? " 

" Yes." 

The thing is done. They go into the barracoon, from 
the barracoon to the vessel ; are taken to Cuba or Peru, 
or some other place, to all intents and purposes slaves. 

Including head-money, they cost from twenty-five to 
thirty dollars apiece. The barracoon keeper or dealer 
doubles his money, selling them to the shipper for sixty 
or seventy dollars. Insurance, passage, and other ex- 
penses bring their cost to about two- hundred dollars at 
Havana, where these emigrants are sold for eight years' 
service at about three hundred and fifty dollars. Nearly 
fifteen thousand a year are shipped, and the trade is in- 
creasing. 

The Governor of Macao is appointed by the king of 
Portugal, and has a salary of $ 3,750. There is also a 
judge and a bishop, each having a salary of $ 2,300. All 
laws are made by the senate, consisting of three persons, 
who are elected by the people. Suffrage is universal, 
that is, for Portuguese residents. 

If a person wishes to lead a lazy, careless, good-for- 
nothing life, Macao is the place for him. The inhabitants 
are in no hurry or worry about business ; provisions are 
cheap, the climate mild, the heat of summer tempered by 
the .monsoon ; the atmosphere conducive to indolence. 
13 s 



290 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Society imposes no restraints in regard to morality ; there 
is no necessity for troubling the priest to pronounce the 
marriage vow ; they only ask for absolution when death 
steals on apace. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

A RAMBLE IN CANTON. 

ANY of the central towns of the empire were in 
the hands of the rebels during the Taeping rebel- 
lion, and suffered severely, losing some of the features of 
the old civilization ; but Canton was not taken by them. 
Shanghae is a modern place, while Pekin is a Tartar city, 
and here, therefore, better than anywhere else, we may 
study the characteristics of old China. 

Going a few steps dowm a narrow passage, we are in 
one of the principal streets, which would be classed as 
a lane or alley in an American town. The widest 
thoroughfare in the city would scarcely admit a car- 
riage drawn by horses. Keeping the points of compass 
in mind, and heeding our turnings, we enter the labyrinth. 
The houses are usually two stories in height, with tiled 
roofs, projecting eaves, and overhanging balconies, — shops 
in the lower story, rooms for the family above. 

Chinese art has adorned door-post, cornice, curved roof, 
and ridge-pole with dragons. Each shop has an elaborate 
perpendicular sign-board, painted in chrome, vermilion, 
and purple, with letters in green or gold, while flags and 
banners are suspended from cords drawn across the street. 
Doors and windows are open, for it is a mild climate and 
glass is little used. 

We see, in addition to the signs and banners, a gorgeous 



A RAMBLE IN CANTON. 



291 



display of lanterns, — bamboo frames covered with, red, 
yellow, blue, or green oiled silk, pictured with genii and 
gnomes in all the grotesqueness of Chinese art. Some 
are not larger than a small market-basket, others six or 
eight feet in diameter. 

The goods in the 
shops are displayed 
in the most tempt- 
ing manner. We 
see porcelain vases, 
worth hundreds of 
dollars ; lacquered 
wares, elaborately 
ornamented ; silk 
robes, elegantly em- 
broidered ; fans 
manufactured from 
peacocks' tails, for 
the officials of the 
empire ; sedans, 
glittering with sil- 
ver and gold, for 
the wealthy classes. 

A jostling crowd 
fills the street. 
Hucksters with 
baskets or trays on their heads are shouting with stento- 
rian voices the excellence of their cabbages, melons, and 
onions. 

The provision shops are supplied with mutton, pork, 
chickens, turkeys, and ducks. Here comes a cooly with 
two live pigs, tied by the legs, hanging from his bam- 
boo. They protest against going to market in this fash- 
ion by a vigorous squealing, which sets all the dogs in 
the vicinity howling. 




AN OPEN COUNTENANCE. 



292 



OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 



But dogs go to market as well as pigs. The carcasses 
of five fat curs are hanging on the hooks of one establish- 
ment. A pedler, leading a lot of puppies, and carrying 
a basket containing several kittens, enters the shop. He 
strikes a bargain with the provision-dealer, who puts them 
into cages for future customers. The shopman has no 
rats on hand to-day, but we can find them at other stalls. 




GOING TO MARKET. 



In a tub near the door is a squirming mass of young 
eels, and in a tank supplied with fresh water a vari- 
ety of fish. A well-dressed customer enters, points to 
a large fish, which the shopman catches in a dip-net, 
dresses it on the spot, saving the head and entrails. A 
second customer, a poor cooly who can only manage by 
hard work and strict economy to keep soul and body to- 
gether comes in, haggles awhile over the price, departs 
with the intestines of the fish, the comb of a cockerel, 
and a joint of puppy ! 

It would not be giving a fair representation of the Chi- 
nese to represent them all as eating cats, dogs, rats, 



A EAMBLE IN CANTON. 293 

mice, and garbage in general ; the majority of the people 
live on rice and fish ; but in a country so densely popu- 
lated as this, everything that can sustain human life must 
be brought into requisition. 

We must look sharp if we would not be run down by 
the coolies, who stream past in an endless procession, car- 
rying bundles, boxes, bags, bales of goods, — all wearing 
bamboo hats with rims so broad that in some of the 
narrow alleys they are obliged to tip them on one side 
to pass. We meet water-carriers with buckets, and sell- 
ers of all sorts of wares. A dozen men stagger along with 
a large block of granite, shouting in chorus, "Hootoo, 
hootoo ! " — Get out of the way ! get out of the way ! 

Although Europeans have been at Canton for nearly 
a century, we cannot walk the streets without at- 
tracting attention. An old man, seeing us, raises his 
grandchild, — we know he is a grandfather because he 
wears a mustache, — points us out to the little one as 
a curiosity, just as many American grandparents might 
do if this gentleman were to appear in the United States 
with his pigtail, broad-brimmed hat,, and pointed shoes 
turned up at the toes. We hear him say, " Fan Kwei ! 
Fan Kwei ! " — Foreign devil, foreign devil. 

In travelling it is policy to get the good-will of stran- 
gers, and we reply " Chin-chin," which is equivalent to 
How do you do ? and we have the pleasure of hearing 
Chin-chin in return. Putting our fists together and 
shaking them at the gentleman, we make a profound 
salaam. Not to be outdone in politeness, he shakes his 
at us, makes the little one in his arms, with a funny tail 
sprouting from the crown of his head, put his hands to- 
gether and say Chin-chin ! and so we bow and chin-chin 
and shake our fists, greatly to the amusement of the gath- 
ering crowd. 

An amusing story is told of the fright given to a Chi- 



294 



OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



nese barber, who once shaved a bald-headed English- 
man. While his back was turned the customer, taking 

7 O 

a wig from his hat, placed it on his head. The sud- 
den growth of hair almost frightened the barber out 
of his senses. He fled from the shop fully persuaded 
that he had been shaving the Old Hairy I 

Old China Street, 
as the foreigners 
have named one 
of the passages, is 
a great resort for 
minstrels, fortune- 
tellers, gamblers, 
astrologers, and 
quack doctors. 

A company of 
musicians are giv- 
ing a concert in a 
small building, and 
we work our way 
through the crowd 
at the door. Being 
a foreigner, we are 
invited to take a 
seat in front of the 
minstrels, — three 
women sitting on 
a raised platform, 
their faces painted with vermilion, their hair stiffly starched 
and decorated with flowers. Their voices are shrill and 
sharp, their singing a distressing wail. They are accom- 
panied by an orchestra composed of a one-stringed fiddle, 
a drum, and gong. Its best counterpart is the rolling of 
the sheet-iron thunder behind the scenes of a theatre to 
represent the coming on of a storm. 




OLD HAIRY. 



A RAMBLE IN CANTON. 



295 



An assistant is mixing some sort 



Passing on a few steps, we enter the shop of an apoth- 
ecary, who has bundles of herbs, jars, phials, and boxes 
filled with drugs and medicines. Conspicuous among his 
nostrums are dried snake-skins, coiled in artistic forms 
around the pillars supporting the roof, or tied in double- 
knots on the counter 
of medicament in a 
mortar, putting in 
different herbs and 
a piece of serpent- 
skin. It will hardly 1 
do to laugh at him, 
for there are people 
in the United States 
who are fully per- 
suaded of the vir- 
tues of the hearts 
of rattlesnakes 
curing particular 
diseases. 

The apothecary 
pulls teeth. He has 
done a deal of busi- 
ness in that line, 
for he has nearly a 
half-bushel of old 
stumps in a basket 

by the door. We have seen a quart or two displayed 
by dentists in American cities, but population is more 
dense, here than in the United States. He has a patient 
afflicted with rheumatism in the knee, who lies upon a 
mat while the doctor is removing the disease by the 
use of cupping-glasses, and by rubbing the afflicted parts 
with his hand. 

Many of the passers-by stop for a moment at the gam- 




THE ORCHESTRA. 



296 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



bling-stalls, to try their luck at cards, dice, or dominos. 
They begin the game by dividing the cards into six little 
packs. The first player lays a card on the table, his op- 
ponent places one immediately across it, the others are 
arranged at all the points of the compass, in the form of 
a star, each man scoring the respective value of his cards 
as the play goes on. The stakes are a few " cash," — 
small copper coins, ten of them equivalent to a cent. 
They play for a dinner or supper, or pledge their clothing 
when they have nothing else, so strong is the passion. 

The fortune-tellers are nu- 
merous, sitting at small, por- 
table tables, which they carry 
away at night. One of the 
tribe, who seems to be very 
popular, judging by the crowd 
around him, is an old man, 
wearing immense spectacles 
with round glasses, set in 
bamboo frames. Upon the 
table is a shallow wooden 
bowl, with a diagram of fig- 
ures and characters painted 
inside. He shakes his dice 
in a small tortoise-shell, drops 
them into the bowl, notes the 
characters upon which they 
rest, repeats the operation 
three times, and then writes 
out the decisions of the Fates 
in regard to the future of 
the anxious young gentleman, 
who pays his cash and gives 
place to another customer. 
Women are not so shy as 




SOLE OF A CHINESE SHOE. 



THE TEMPLE OF THE OCEAN BANNER. 297 

those of India ; they appear on the street without veils. 
Most women in China are obliged to work for a living, 
and their feet are of natural size. Those of the upper 
class, whose feet have been subjected to cruel and un- 
natural compression in childhood, fare badly if misfortune 
overtakes them. They can only toddle about like little 
children just able to walk, and are wholly incapacitated 
for labor. But the ancient practice is still adhered to by 
the wealthy classes. " Why do you keep up such a cus- 
tom ? " inquired an American gentleman of a leading 
merchant. 

" Small foot-ee woman no go walk-ee — walk-ee — 
walk-ee ! " was his reply; by which we are to understand 
that Chinese ladies like to walk the streets, and see what 
is to be seen, as well as women of other lands. 

The accompanying illustration is the exact outline of 
the sole of a shoe, showing the size of one which has been 
worn by a Chinese lady of Hong Kong. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

THE TEMPLE OF THE OCEAN BANNER. 

TAKHSTG a boat, we cross the river, and land at a 
small pier in front of the "Great Temple of the 
Ocean Banner," one of the oldest Buddhist edifices of 
Canton. It stands on the island of Honam, and is called 
the temple of Honam by foreigners; but the Chinese 
delight in flowery names. 

Passing through a gate, we enter a large yard paved 
with stone, and walk up a long avenue beneath old 
trees. This is the outer court of the temple, in which is a 



298 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

building of one story, with a curved roof, adorned with 
figures of dragons and satyrs, peering from the cornices, 
perched at the angles, or sitting astride the ridge-pole. 
Ascending the stone steps and entering the wide doorway,. 
we are confronted by a huge idol with an ugly coun- 
tenance. 

The temple is guarded by this warder, Mi-leh-fuh, who 
has an assistant close by, — an image mailed from head 
to foot, and wielding a bludgeon. He is the spiritual 
policeman of the place, — the terror of evil-doers, and 
especially of thieves. A little farther and we come upon 
four other figures, one bearing the holy umbrella. When 
he spreads it, heaven and earth are darkened .' Another 
holds a guitar-shaped instrument ; he is the Orpheus of 
the Chinese Pantheon, and has power over dragons. 
The third bears a long sword, the emblem of domin- 
ion ; while the fourth is a sort of St. Patrick, — an 
exterminator of snakes. 

Passing through this edifice we enter the inner court, 
and beyond it behold the temple itself, — a building of 
the same general features externally as the one just de- 
scribed, but larger. It is eighty or ninaty feet in length, 
seventy or eighty wide, and about fifty high. 

Stepping within, we see the whole interior at a glance. 
It is a large room with tiled floor and brick walls, the 
rafters and beams exposed and festooned with cobwebs. 
The dim light which struggles in through the narrow 
windows serves to reveal the dinginess of the place, 
which bears a strong resemblance to a dilapidated iron- 
foundry. The " Three Precious Ones," — ■ representing 
the Past, Present, and Future, — occupy the space in 
the centre. They are images about twenty feet high, 
sitting cross-legged amid lotus-flowers. Sticks of san- 
dal-wood are smouldering on an altar, filling the build- 
ing with fragrance. Looking through the smoky atmos- 



THE TEMPLE OF THE OCEAN BANNEE. 299* 

phere, we see a demon in one corner, a big bell in 
another, and a pot-bellied wooden fish between them. 
It is the hour for worship. One man beats the drum, 
another tolls the bell, a third rattles a tattoo upon the 
fish, while a procession of priests, wearing soiled robes 
of red, yellow, and green silk, files in and forms round 
the idols. - 

These fellows are supported by endowments and gifts, 
and are as lazy, well fed, and filthy as some of the 
monks which we see in the streets of Eome. They bow 
to the images, and to each other, march backward and 
forward, kneel, — the high-priest chanting a prayer in old 
Hindustani, the others responding in the same language, 
of which they probably understand as little as they do of 
Hottentot. They lay paper flowers upon the altar, 
wreathe them round the golden candlesticks, kneel and 
bow again, going through a ceremonial very much like 
that of the Catholic Church. 

It is impossible for us to give an extended description 
of the religions of China. Sects here are as numerous 
as in Christian lands, but they may all be comprehended 
in three systems, — Buddhist, Tauist, and Confucian. 

The Tauist religion is the oldest. 

The name of the deity worshipped by this sect is 
Lao-ts, which, literally rendered, means the " Old Boy ! " 
About the time that Solon was giving his new code of 
laws to the Athenians, 600 B. C, a philosopher appeared 
in China who wrote a remarkable work entitled " Tau-teh- 
king," a treatise on Truth and Virtue. 

This book taught that, thousands of years before 
the Creation, there was an unembodied living prin- 
ciple existing in vacant space. There were transfor- 
mations, evolutions, general mixings up and turnings- 
over for innumerable ages, then the principle appeared as 
a deity bearing the name of " Holy Buler of Wonderful; 



300 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Nonentity." Other ages rolled away ; succeeding trans- 
formations took place, and lie appeared as the " Holy 
Ruler of Wonderful Entity," and then as the "Holy 
Ruler of Chaotic Confusion." 

After the creation of man, he dropped from heaven 
in the form of a hall, falling into the open mouth of 
a virgin who was asleep. He was not born till eighty- 
one years after. At birth his hair was white with old 
age, and so he was named the Old Boy ! 

Nearly a thousand years ago one of the kings of the 
Sung dynasty composed this hymn of adoration to 
this deity, otherwise called Tau : — 

" Great and most excellent Tau, 
Not created, self-existent ; 
From eternities to eternities, 
Antecedent to the earth and heaven, 
Like all-pervading light, 
Continuing through eternity : 
Who gave instruction to Confucius in the East, 
And called into existence Buddha in the West. 
Director of all kings ; 
Parent of all sages ; 
Originator of all religions ; 
Mystery of mysteries." 

Besides the Old Boy there are numerous gods in the 
Tauist religion, many of which are akin to those of the 
Buddhist Pantheon. Su-tsn is the great medicine god of 
China, to whom prayers are offered in sickness. 

Lue-kung has a big drum and manufactures thunder, 
while his wife Lue-po makes the lightning by using a 
looking-glass to reflect the sun ! 

The dragon, the emblem of which is on the flag of 
China, is one of the deities of this sect. This god has 
dominion over lakes, rivers, seas, clouds, and tempests. 
He has myriads of inferior dragons at command. Fish, 
crabs, turtles, lobsters, and snakes, which are of the 
lower class, are in a state of progression, and from time 




o 



THE TEMPLE OF THE OCEAN BANNER. 301 

to time are elevated according to their merits. These and 
numerous other superstitions are held by the Tauists, 
and by some of the other sects as well. 

Tauism is the court religion of the empire. Its forms 
and ceremonials are imposing, but it is not so popular a 
belief as the Buddhist, which is the principal religion of 
Eastern Asia, accepted by a third part of the human race. 

The Confucian religion, which is based on reverence 
for parents, has taken the form of ancestral worship. In 
houses and shops we see tablets setting forth the virtues 
of the dead, and shall doubtless have an opportunity of 
witnessing this form of worship. 

Wandering at will through the grounds adjoining this 
Temple of the Ocean Banner we come upon a pigsty and 
hennery filled with imprisoned spirits. A plump rooster 
gives a lusty crow, which we may consider as a cry of 
welcome from a gay old cock of other days, who, having 
sinned while in the form of man, has gone back in the 
scale of creation to do penance in the shape of a rooster ! 
Old gentlemen of former times, who did something 
wrong while alive, are now snoozing in the sty. The 
priests see that they are well fed, for who knows but they 
may become porkers by and by, needing good fare ! 

The Buddhist monks or priests live in the temple. 
Their kitchen is in an adjoining building, with large cop- 
per boilers for cooking, ovens for baking, tubs for wash- 
ing, and beneath the same roof are their dining-tables. 
In another building, which has a veranda overlooking 
a large garden, are the sleeping apartments. Americans 
would not consider the accommodations very inviting, but 
to most Chinese they would be luxurious. 

What has been said of another monastery is applicable 
to this of the Ocean Banner : — 

" Within the quiet of the convent cell 
The well-fed inmates pattered prayers and slept, 
And liked their easy penance well." 



302 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



Eecrossing the river, taking sedans, and entering one of 
the most crowded streets of the city, we are set down in 
the outer court of a temple which is dedicated to the god 
who has the city in his keeping. 

Here we behold a representation of the future life, — 
plaster images portraying the transmigration of souls. A 
boy is changing to a dog. One man has horns growing 
.from his forehead, his feet and hands are changing to 
hoofs, a tail is sprouting from his back. He will soon 
be a bull. A third is changing to an ass ; head and 
ears are already on. (Perhaps that is not so very re- 
markable !) We see no transformations of the female 
sex. For them there is no future. 




TRANSMIGRATION. 



In another portion of the building are the horrors of 
the Buddhist hell. The devils have a grist-mill in which 
they grind up the wicked. One sinner has been put 
in headforemost, and we see only his feet sticking out 
of the hopper. The two demons turning the mill are en- 
gaged in pleasant work, judging by their sardonic grins. 



THE TEMPLE OF THE OCEAN BANNER. 



',(>: 



The interior of the temple is very much like that of 
the Ocean Banner, only that this is not so dingy, while 
the crimson hangings over the idols are more gorgeous, 
and the crowd of worshippers is vastly greater. Numer- 
ous idols are set in niches along the walls. In an adjoin- 
ing apartment is the goddess of flowers with her thirty 
muses, accompanied by the god, of the kitchen and the 
all-protecting dragons. 




THE GRINDERS. 



Joss-sticks, as they are called, are smoking on the 
altars. These are composed of slow-burning composi- 
tions, — like the port-fire for touching off cannon in use 
before the invention of percussion primers. 

A poor woman is before the altar, trying to ascertain 
what the gods have in store for her, by using two small 
pieces of wood resembling the two halves of a pear. 
She kneels, throws the luck-blocks on the ground ; tries 
again ; a third time, and departs with a sad countenance ; 
the gods will not hear her prayer. If a flat and a round 
side had come up together twice out of the three trials, 
her request would have been granted, and she would have 
gone home with a lighter heart. 



304 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

A man kneels in her place, with a cylindrical box in 
his hands, open at the top, and containing several small 
wooden sticks, which are numbered. He shakes the 
box till one stick falls out, then consults the book of 
omens. The responses are vaguely written. Oracles in 
all ages have been indefinite. The superstitious hopes 
and fears of those who resort to them make them favor- 
able or unfavorable. This worshipper is evidently well 
pleased at his luck, for he rises with alacrity, touches off 
several bunches of fire-crackers, burns a quire or two of 
gilt paper on the altar, pays over his cash to the waiting 
priest, and departs with a cheerful countenance. There 
is a continual exploding of fire-crackers throughout the 
temple, — which, with the beating of drums, makes the 
worship very much like the irrepressible patriotism mani- 
fested on the Fourth of July in the United States. 



CHAPTEE XXXVIII. 

MORAL FORCES. 

" ' | S HE missionaries can give you more information 
X than anybody else," said a friend at Hong Kong ; 
" they know all the city, are in daily contact with the 
people, and speak the language with fluency." 

We saw the Presbyterian Mission buildings from the 
deck of the steamer as we came up the river. Threading 
our way through the narrow streets, we soon reach them. 
A Chinaman in a brown cotton frock opens a gate, and 
gives us admission. There are two substantial houses of 
brick, two stories high, with verandas, a large chapel, and 
several smaller buildings. 



MORAL FORCES. 305 

We have hearty welcome from Rev. Mr. Preston and 
Dr. Keer, both of whom are connected with the mission. 

In 1835, a third of a century ago, Dr. Peter Parker of 
Boston, a missionary of the American Board, was here 
in Canton, and conceived the idea of establishing a medi- 
cal hospital. By curing the diseases of the body, he 
hoped to commend the religion of Jesus to the Chinese. 
In 1841 the Massachusetts Medical Society, having heard 
of the project, passed a series of resolutions approving it, 
and appointed a committee to present the matter to the 
merchants of Boston, and the result of this action was 
a fund of about five thousand dollars. The charity was 
brought before the English and American merchants of 
Canton, who formed an association known as the Medical 
Missionary Society of China. Since then the society has 
gone on enlarging its sphere of operations. The mer- 
chants contribute annually to defray the necessary ex- 
penses. The Parsees also make liberal donations. 

Dr. Keer is the principal physician and surgeon; he 
has several Chinese assistants, some of whom have be- 
come learned and skilful. There are other physicians in 
the inland towns, operating under his direction. 

We find the Doctor at home, his family occupying the 
chambers of the hospital building. It is the hour for 
seeing the patients, and we go down the long stairs to 
a crowd of men, women, and children in the chapel. 
It is a plain edifice, with the Ten Commandments and 
Lord's Prayer in Chinese characters on the walls. While 
Dr. Keer is attending to the patients in an adjoining 
room, Mr. Preston talks upon the truths of the Bible and 
the Christian religion. 

About twenty persons are in the dispensary, — one 
woman with an incurable cancer, another with one cheek 
thrice its usual size. The Doctor whips out his lancet, 
and in a trice the patient is relieved of the pain pro- 



306 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

duced by an ulcerated jaw. A mother is solicitous for 
the little child in her arms. One person shows the 
scrofula, which is eating the flesh from her limbs. Step- 
ping into an adjoining room, we see a man who had half 
of his under jaw taken out last week, and is recovering. 
So on through the long catalogue of disease. Those 
patients who require constant treatment are lodged in 
the hospital, others are cared for by their relatives. 
They look upon Dr. Keer as their best friend, and trust 
themselves implicitly in his hands. 

It will be gratifying to the merchants of Boston, who 
contributed money to start this enterprise, to know that 
twenty-six thousand patients were treated last year, and 
that the society has the confidence of the Chinese. It is 
under the direction of the missionaries of the Presby- 
terian Board, but the treasury of that society is not 
chargeable with any of the expenses. It is a great 
civilizing and Christianizing agency. 

" The Medical Society is doing more than anything 
else to remove prejudice against foreigners from the 
minds of the Chinese," said a gentleman who has long 
resided at Hong Kong. 

The idea is almost universal among the natives, or 
rather it has been, that the missionaries have a political 
object in view. They cannot understand why foreigners 
should leave their homes and settle in China to preach 
religion, unless it is for some such sinister purpose. 

" I preach every day to the Chinese," says Mr. Preston ; 
"would you like to see what sort of a congregation 
I have ? " 

" By all means." 

We take our seats in sedans, and are carried through 
the streets, coming at length into one of the principal 
thoroughfares, and stop before a little store kept by the 
missionaries for the sale of books. Dozens of people are 



MORAL FORCES. 307 

already there, waiting for the opening of the doors of the 
adjoining chapel. It is one o'clock, and the tide of life 
surging through the city is at its flood. A preacher would 
have a slim audience in State or Wall Street, at 'Change 
hour ; but the Chinese are an old people, their empire 
is finished, their civilization complete, and time is a drug. 
They have abundant leisure, while we foreign barbarians 
are worrying and hurrying ourselves to death. 

The chapel is furnished with settees capable of seat- 
ing two hundred or more. Sitting by the desk, we 
have an opportunity to observe the audience. On the 
front seats are some literary students, — young men 
who are studying for official employment, well dressed 
in white, clean frocks and trousers, their pigtails neatly 
braided. At our right hand is a bare-headed cooly with 
three bundles and a porter-bottle in his arms. He has 
stepped in to rest himself a few minutes, and to hear 
what the "foreign devil" has to say. Behind him is 
one wearing a broad-brimmed hat. Men of all ages, all 
conditions, from the well-to-do merchant down to the 
poor wretch who lives on rice and snails, residents of the 
city and strangers from the country, compose the audi- 
ence. 

These men are actuated by various motives, — love of 
novelty and curiosity to hear a foreigner speak fluently 
in their language perhaps being the prevailing ones. 
They are not accustomed to hear public speaking ; they 
have their story-tellers, but no orators or gatherings 
where arguments are put forth. Very few of them are 
seekers after truth, and their conceptions of the Chris- 
tian religion are exceedingly low ; but yet every day they 
flock to the chapel to hear this American preacher, a 
short, thick-set, good-natured man, who understands 
their language perfectly, and is well read in their liter- 
ature. 



308 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

His subject to-day is the conflict between good and 
evil, holiness and sin. A young man with bright eyes, a 
student, breaks in : — 

" If your doctrine is true, why don't you foreigners 
practise it ; why do you bring opium to China ? " 

A home question, practical, right to the point. The 
audience are alert to hear what Mr. Preston will say. 

"There are wicked men all over the world; and if 
foreigners bring opium to China, you must have nothing 
to do with it." 

The laugh which goes up shows that the audience 
appreciate the reply. 

" Why did you make war upon China ? Why do you 
come and take the coolies and make slaves of them?" 
another asks. The replies are evidently satisfactory, 
judging by the good-humor of the audience. 

The church connected with the Presbyterian Mission 
numbers between thirty and forty members. The Church 
of England, the London Missionary Society, and the 
English Wesleyans all have missionaries at Canton. 

Taking our sedans again, we are carried through several 
streets to the eastern section of the city, to the cathe- 
dral, going up under the direction of the French Catholics, 
Since 1860 over five hundred priests of the Eomish 
Church have arrived in China. The Catholics of France, 
seemingly, have taken the empire in hand and it is hinted 
that Louis Napoleon means to make French influence 
superior to that of England here. Be that as it may, it 
is plain that somebody is taking a long look ahead. 

Soon after the treaty of 1859 was signed ground was 
obtained for the erection of a cathedral, and the founda- 
tions laid for an edifice which is nearly two hundred and 
fifty feet in length, with a corresponding width, in the 
form of the Latin cross. The material is granite, in color 
and grain very much like that of Cape Ann, quarried on 



ON THE CANTON RIVER. 309 

the island of Hong Kong, and brought ninety-two miles 
by water. It is estimated that the structure will cost 
from three to four million dollars. 

We hear the clicking of hammers and chisels before 
we emerge from the labyrinth of streets, and upon get- 
ting out of our sedan find ourselves in a great yard with 
a bamboo shed over us, in which stone-cutters are at 
work. The cathedral walls are about half-way up, but 
it probably will be five or six years before the roof is on 
and the building completed. 

Those who have seen the elaborate workmanship of 
the capitals of the Treasury building at Washington 
may form some conception of the ornate sculpture of 
this cathedral, when they consider that it far surpasses 
anything in the United States in the way of architectural 
embellishment. 



CHAPTEE XXXIX. 

ON THE CANTON RIVER. 

TAKING a sampan, with a woman and a girl for cap- 
tain and crew, we float up the river with the tide, 
to view the scenes along its banks. We have ducks and 
chickens for fellow-passengers. A rooster perched on the 
roof over our heads claps his wings and gives a lusty 
crow as we push into the stream. The girl speaks a few 
words of " pigeon English," which is an almost unintelli- 
gible mixture of English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, 
and Chinese. It is used in commercial transactions. 
"Pigeon" is the best pronunciation which the Chinese 
can give of the word " business," hence the name. 



310 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

If we were old acquaintances, this young lady pulling 
at the oar would say : — 

Have savvee faey to muchee long time. 

We have known you a long time. 

But the characteristics of the jargon will be best shown 
by the following letter of a prominent merchant, Howqua, 
written to Mr. Eichardson of Boston, now deceased : — 

My good Friend : How fashion insi hob got this morn- 
ing ? Hah catchee little more better ? What thing Br. 
Parker talkee 'long you ? He hab show you true what 
thing insi ? 

My good Friend : How are you (what is the state of 
your insides) this morning ? Have you got a little bet- 
ter ? What does Dr. Parker say to you ? He has (no 
doubt) shown you correctly (what is wrong inside). 

My thinkee spose any man show you catchee that gin 
go 'long that watir spose you wantee catchee. No. 1 fine, 
that he talkee small chils play pigeon. No got reason, all 
same one fools. 

My opinion is, that if any man recommends you to 
take gin and water, to get perfectly well (No. 1 fine), 
that he talks childish. He is as unreasonable as a fool. 

Spose my all the same for you sick, my must wantee too 
muchee chin chin, that large Joss my thinkee he can savvee 
that pigeon more bettir for Dr. Parker little. 

Suppose I was as sick as you are ; I would want very 
much to burn incense (chin chin) to that great Joss (the 
idol). I think he (Joss) knows that business (what is 
the matter with you) a little better than Dr. Parker. 

No 'casion you tcdkee insi. So eh. Cause any man can 
savvee, hab got reason talkee. 

There is no occasion for you to doubt this (talk inside), 
because any one will see I talk reasonably. 

Have hear any news come from that Melica si ? Too 
muchee piecee man shew my hab got hvo piecee ships talkee 



ON THE CANTON RIVER. 311 

Von Juan go 'long that Paulina hah begin long teem before 
walkee this side. Just now he no hah got Macao si. 

Have you heard any news from America (shores) ? 
Several men have told me that there are two ships, 
named Don Juan and (go long) Paulina, started to come 
here long since. They have not reached Macao. 

Don Juan have begin that No. 15 day, that No. 1 moon, 
Europe counter, and Paulina have all the same fashion No. 
19 day, any man thinkee he must come Macao directly. 
Can see, can savvee. That no my pigeon, that hob Joss 
pigeon. 

The Don Juan started the 15th of January, European 
reckoning, and the Paulina the 19th, same reckoning. It 
is to be supposed they will arrive soon. As soon as we 
see, we shall know. It is Joss's business, not mine. 

Just now must finishee, no got teem talkee any more long 
you. My chin chin, you eatchee more better chop chop. So 
fashion talkee. Your good friend. 

I must now close, as I have no time to write any more 
to you. I hope you will get better very soon. So write 
your good friend. 

It will be seen that " eatchee " means to get or bring ; 
"go long," with, or, and; "chin chin," good wishes or 
prayer ; " Joss," the idol or heathen god ; " chop chop," 
very quick. 

The river abounds with fish, and thousands of poor 
wretches, who have no other home than their boats, draw 
a large portion of their sustenance from the water. Fish 
are reared for the market in ponds, but those which 
ascend the river from the sea are taken in vast number 
by hook and line, by nets, and by trained cormorants. 
These birds have a great appetite for fish, a keen eye 
to see, and are expert in catching them. The fisherman 
makes them not only work for their own living, but for 
his. A ring is slipped upon the neck of the bird, to 



312 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



prevent it from swallowing the fish. It dives, appears 
with its prey, is taken on board the boat, fed a few mor- 
sels, just enough to sharpen its appetite, tossed over 
again, to reappear perhaps without a fish, when it is 
chastised and tossed rudely into the water without being 
fed. The bird is kept always at the starvation point. 

We pass a number of gayly decorated " flower-boats," 
which are not floating green-houses, as their names might 
indicate, but establishments where dinners are served. 




FLOWER-BOAT. 



In America every house has its dining-room and parlor 
suitable for the entertainment of friends, but the majority 
of the Chinese are content if they can obtain four walls 
with space enough to sleep and cook their rice. They 
like to entertain their friends, and these gayly decorated 
flat-bottomed boats, with elegantly furnished cabins, — 
silken curtains, gorgeous lanterns, gay flowers in earthen 
pots and wooden tubs, fluttering flags and pennons, bright 
gilding and fine paintings, — are for public hire. 

We have an opportunity to see a company at dinner as 



ON THE CANTON EIVEB. 313 

we float lazily past. The giver of the feast and the in- 
vited guests, about a dozen in all, are seated around a 
table. Their sleek and glossy pigtails, which are elabo- 
rately braided for the occasion, hang down their backs 
and dangle on the floor. They wear their hats, for it 
would be a breach of politeness for guests to remove 
them wliile at table or in the presence of their host. 

In one corner, partly screened by a large orange-tree 
blooming in a tub, are three girls, their cheeks and lips red 
with carmine, their hair stiffly starched and ornamented 
with flowers. One has a guitar, another an instrument 
resembling a banjo, and the third a small pair of cym- 
bals. They are hired for the occasion, just as in the 
United States the Germanians and Mendelssohns, or the 
best musicians and vocalists, are employed to increase 
the pleasure of the guests at grand dinner-parties. 

There is a good deal of sense in their method of enter- 
taining friends. Mrs. Loo Choo will not have to rear- 
range her' parlor in the morning. There will be no 
stale tobacco-smoke about the house, no dishes to wash, 
no setting things to rights. It is an economical way. 
The proprietor of the boat furnishes the dinner and en- 
gages the minstrels ; the host has nothing to do but pay 
the bills. 

Ducks are reared on the river in boats set apart for 
the purpose. They are hatched in ovens, and soon learn 
to obey the quack of their master or mistress. They are 
permitted to take a swim several times a day, but a call 
from the keeper brings them quickly on board. The last 
one receives a good drubbing, which so quickens its. 
memory that it is seldom tardy a second time. They 
are kept till full grown, and then taken to market. 

One of the conspicuous houses at our right hand, as: 
we sail up the river, is a native charitable institution of 
some sort. 

14 



314 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

It has been asserted that benevolent societies are the 
outgrowth of modern civilization, but they have existed 
in this empire from time immemorial. There are orphan 
asylums, homes for the aged and infirm, widows' retreats, 
public hospitals and free schools, mutual-aid societies, 
guilds of the different trades, and protective unions. 
Some of them in years gone by received grants from 
the Imperial treasury. Widows are not encouraged to 
re-marry. It is more honorable to remain single. For 
this reason provision is made for their support. 




DUCK-BOAT. 



The free schools are sustained by the benefactions of 
the rich, but only the poorest classes attend them. The 
Chinese dislike to accept charity in any form, and no one 
attends a free school who can raise the money to pay for 
an education. 

Missionaries cannot obtain scholars unless a small tui- 
tion is charged. Pupils are secured by giving them a 
superior education. In Canton provincial societies exist, 
made up of those who have come from other provinces, 



ON THE CANTON RIVER. 315 

just as New York has its " New England Society," 
Boston its " Sons of New Hampshire," only that these 
are mutual-aid organizations, resembling the Masonic Fra- 
ternity and Odd Fellows. Nearly all of the Chinese 
emigrating to California and Australia belong to the 
Southern Provinces, and are shipped from this port, and 
while here waiting passage find accommodations at the 
head-quarters of the societies. 

A sick or unfortunate member is cared for. If death 
overtakes him, his body is sent home for burial. If poor 
and out of money, he is assisted. 

The head-quarters are in a hall, where the sojourn- 
ers spread their mats and prepare their rice, so that they 
are independent of boarding-houses and can live at an 
economical rate. 

Missionaries inform us that there are no people in the 
world more benevolent than the Chinese. Yet it is as- 
serted that their charity, instead of being influenced by 
high moral principle, is animated solely by selfish motives. 

" The characteristic feature," says Mr. Loomis, " of the 
false religion of China is the performance of meritorious 
actions with a view to the attainment of selfish ends. In 
doing an act which conscience pronounces good and right, 
a Chinaman imagines that he is entitled to some personal 
advantage or reward corresponding to the character of the 
act performed." 

The society of Sam Yap, which embraces the Canton 
district, has sent about fifteen thousand emigrants to Cal- 
ifornia. The initiation fee is $ 10* The Kong Chau Com- 
pany, which embraces the district southwest of Canton, 
has sent out sixteen thousand. The initiation fee is $ 5. 
This society has property in San Francisco valued at 
$ 40,000. The Yueng Wo Company, embracing the Macao 
district, has sent out twenty-six thousand emigrants. 
* Overland Monthly, September, 1868. 



316 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

There are six companies in San Francisco, and by far 
the largest proportion of emigrants to our country go 
under their auspices. The same may be said of those 
who go to Australia, Singapore, and the islands of the 
archipelago. 

The washermen, tailors, and shoemakers have their 
trades-unions, distinct from these organizations. The 
machinery of society in this respect is very much like 
that of England and the United States. It is the univer- 
sal story, — protective union, mutual aid, and co-opera- 
tion. 



CHAPTEE XL. 

UP THE COAST OF CHINA. 

IT is five o'clock in the afternoon when the steamer 
Erl-King works her way out of the harbor of Hong- 
Kong eastward, till past a group of small islands, then 
turns her prow northward, for a run of about nine hun- 
dred miles to Shanghae. 

The night is cloudy, the following morning misty, and 
it is not till afternoon that we obtain a clear view of the 
mainland, and find ourselves in sight of Swatow, one of the 
five treaty ports of China. It is one hundred and eighty 
miles north of Hong Kong, was thrown open to trade by 
the treaty of Tient-sing, 1858, and is the shipping port of 
the city of Ch'ao-chow-foo, which lies a short distance 
inland. It is the emporium of a large territory, compris- 
ing the northern sections of Kwangton and Fukien, the 
two southern coast districts of China. That range of 
mountains which we see south of the entrance to the har- 
bor of Swatow, which lifts its rugged outline far away 



UP THE COAST OF CHINA. 317 

toward the west till lost in the distance, after running 
about a hundred miles inland, trends north, then north- 
east, and comes out to the coast again, as we shall see 
by and by. 

This amphitheatre is drained by the river Han and its 
tributaries, which pour down from the mountains of the 
two districts through a wide plain almost wholly devoted 
to the cultivation of sugar-cane. The Chinese are great 
lovers of sweetmeats, and consume a large quantity of 
sugar, which is most profitably raised in the southern 
provinces. The cargo of our steamer consists principally 
of this article. It is shipped to Shanghae, to be taken 
up the Yangtse, and out through the numerous canals to 
the interior of the empire. 

We are at the Cape of Good Hope, — not the southern 
extremity of Africa, but a headland, five hundred feet 
high, jutting into the sea, along which the Han pours its 
cream-colored tide. Upon a hill of less elevation, a pa- 
goda rears its white walls, forming a prominent landmark 
for seamen. Many of the islands of the bay are terraced 
from the sea-beach to the summit. We pass fleets of 
fishing-boats. 

" I can always tell," says the captain, " my whereabouts 
by the style of the boats. Here the hulls are white ; 
those in the vicinity of Hong Hong have pointed bows, 
and are painted green. At Shanghae we shall find square 
bows and red gunwales." 

This district, in which Swatow is situated, from its 
excess of population is poverty stricken. Great numbers 
of people emigrate. Many of the coolies now throwing 
up the embankments of the Pacific Eailroad in California 
are from this section of the country. From a missionary 
we learn that this province is considered one of the 
" hardest " in China, — hard for the government to man- 
age, hard to live in, hard for missionary effort. Clan 



313 



OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 



fights are of frequent occurrence, and armed mobs resist 
the mandarins when occasion calls. 

Laws cannot be executed here, as in other provinces, 
without producing riots ; especially is the collection of 
taxes resisted. In China confederates in crime are 
frequently punished for small offences by having their 
pigtails tied together. There is no greater disgrace. The 

cue is the emblem 
of honor ; and to 
be tied by it to 
another criminal, 
and suffer expos- 
ure in the street, 
subjected to the 
taunts and jeers of 
the populace, is ex- 
ceedingly humili- 
ating. 

Although so near 
Canton, the local 
dialect is unintelli- 
gible to the Canton- 
ese. Many imagine 
that the four hun- 
dred millions of the 
empire have one 
language ; but the dialects are so numerous and diverse, 
that the people of the different provinces can almost as 
readily understand a foreigner as one of their own coun- 
trymen of another district. 

Swatow is much exposed to the typhoons which sweep 
this section of the coast. It is opposite the southern 
point of the island of Formosa, the situation of which is 
supposed to have something to do with the severity of 
those terrible gales of wind, and scarcely a year passes 




FAST FRIENDS. 



UP THE COAST OF CHINA. 319 

without the occurrence of one or more destructive storms,, 
which strew the land with wrecks. 

Amoy, which lies one hundred and fifty miles north of 
Swatow, has one of the most accessible harbors on the 
coast. A thousand years ago it was the chief port of the 
empire for foreign trade. Western historians inform us 
that junks from Amoy were frequently seen in the Per- 
sian Gulf. In the time of Marco Polo it was a great 
shipping port. The Portuguese were here in 1544, but 
a quarrel having sprung up, they were expelled, — the 
people of the town burning thirteen ships and massa- 
cring four hundred foreigners. During the opium war in 
1841 it was captured by the English fleet, and when the 
treaty of Nankin was signed it was thrown open to for- 
eign trade. 

The town is situated on the southwestern shore of the 
island of Amoy, which is from eight to ten miles long, and 
about forty in circumference, and contains a population 
estimated at half a million. If there were forests on the 
mountains or groves on the hills, the scenery would be 
very beautiful ; but the absence of trees detracts much 
from the beauty, not only of this, but of other Chinese 
landscapes. 

This city, which has a population of about three hun- 
dred thousand, was for a long time in the hands of the 
rebels, and has not yet recovered from the ravages com- 
mitted by them. The country around Amoy has a thin, 
hard soil, but, like that of New England, produces enter- 
prising men. Many of the princely merchants of China 
— and there are some who rank with the Eothschilds in 
wealth — are natives of this district. 

The most important port between Hong Kong and 
Shanghae is Foochow, which is one hundred and eighty - 
five miles north of Amoy. It is located on the rivei 
Min, thirty-five miles inland. The entrance to the 



320 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

harbor is marked by bold headlands. It is the chief 
shipping port for black teas. Over sixty- five million 
pounds were exported from this city in 1866. The esti- 
mate for the present year is from seventy to eighty 
millions, — a " tea fever " having set in. More than 
half is sent to England. The tea-plants best suited to 
this district are the Oolong, Congou, and Flowery Pekoe. 
The Orange Pekoe is also produced, but the difference 
between the two lies, we believe, in the manufacture 
rather than in the plant. We wish very much to see 
this tea metropolis ; but the steamer being bound for 
Shanghae, we are not able to gratify our desire. About 
one hundred foreigners reside there, including several 
missionaries from the United States and England. 

The many ways in which Foochow is spelled on maps 
and in books is a good illustration of the unsettled con- 
dition of Chinese orthography. On Philip's map, sup- 
posed to be standard authority, it is put down as Foo- 
choo-Foo. Eev. Mr. Doolittle, a missionary residing 
there, spells it Fuh-Chau ; the British Consular Service, 
Foo-chou ; the Chinese authorities, Fuchan ; while the 
Foochowians themselves pronounce it Hak Chien. The 
population of the city is about six hundred thousand. 

The province of Fu-kien, of which this is the metrop- 
olis, is a little less in area than the six New England 
States, but it has a dense population. The climate is 
mild. Frost and ice are rarely seen. The mercury 
seldom falls below 38°. Dining the winter of 1864 
about two inches of snow fell, — an occurrence unknown 
for forty years. In July and August the heat is exces- 
sive in the valleys, but the temperature on the moun- 
tains is delightful. 

The bamboo nourishes along the streams of this prov- 
ince, and the timber trade is very extensive. The junks 
of Foochow are especially constructed for its transpor- 



UP THE COAST OF CHINA. 321 

tation. Being hollow, the bamboo is very light, and 
there is no clanger of overloading, although the long, 
slender poles project far over the sides, and are piled 
high upon the decks. One of them, seen in the distance, 
looks like a gundalow freighted with hay from the salt- 
marshes of the Merrimack, or an old-time New England 
meeting-house, with a sail tacked to the steeple. The 
monsoon is setting in, the wind blowing up the coast, and 
the " meeting-house " will make good time to Shanghae. 
The timber disposed of there, a return cargo will be ob- 
tained of rice, bean-cake, and other productions of the 
lowlands and plains of the Yangtse valley. 

Long before reaching the entrance to the great river 
of China, we find the water discolored by the sediment 
brought down from the mountains of Thibet and the 
plains of the Central Provinces. The estuary is sixty 
miles wide, but is gradually becoming narrower. Sand- 
reefs and mud-banks are forming ; islands appear from 
time to time, showing that the delta is gaining upon the 
sea. 

The land is so low that sometimes, when there is a 
conflict of waters between the floods pouring out and 
the waves and tides rolling in, the surrounding country 
is inundated, and the people are compelled to take refuge 
in their boats or in trees. 

Steaming up the bay, we see numerous foreign ships, 
some just entering the river after a long passage around 
Cape Horn or across the Indian Ocean, others spreading 
their white wings for a homeward voyage. An English 
steamer is shaping its course for Japan, an American for 
a voyage up the coast to Cheefoo and Tientsin, carrying 
the mails to Pekin. Everything about us indicates that 
we are approaching a great commercial city. 

u* u 



322 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

APPROACH TO SHANGHAE. 

WE have left the great river and steamed into the 
Wusung, which is only a tidal estuary connected 
with the great network of canals south of us. It is fast 
filling up, especially since commerce has built up a great 
town on its banks, and it is feared that before many years 
this river will be narrowed to a muddy ditch. Should 
that ever happen, the town of Wusung) and the French 
naval depot established there, will quite likely become 
the site of the new city. 

From the deck of the steamer we have a fine view 
of the place. It is situated on a green bank near the 
confluence of the Wusung with the Yangtse. The Chi- 
nese had a mud fort here in 1841, which was knocked to 
pieces by the English. 

Before us are low, mean houses, narrow streets, and 
crowds of men, women, and children on the shore ; other 
crowds swarm on the numerous junks, boats, and sampans 
in the stream. 

The low-lying meadows are bordered with reeds and 
rushes. Beyond are cotton-fields, the plants now about 
six inches high ; acres of sugar-cane and sorghum, rice- 
fields, bamboo huts with walls of matting, apple and 
peach trees, gardens filled with cabbages and cauliflowers, 
potato-patches, — a landscape somewhat like that of the 
Mississippi, only there are no grand old forest-trees, or 
gigantic cotton- woods, or background of limestone bluffs, 
or stately mansions, but everywhere, as far as the eye 
can reach, a dead level of meadow, of cultivated fields, 
and vegetation of unsurpassed richness. 



APPROACH TO SHANGHAE. 323 

Turning a bend of the river, the masts of the ship- 
ping are seen, — a hundred ships and barks, thousands of 
junks, and sailing-boats by the ten thousand. There are 
steamers by the score, bound for Japan, Hong Kong, and 
other places on the coast, north and south. Conspicuous 
along the docks are the river steamers of Messrs. Russell 
& Co., modelled after those of Long Island Sound, of light 
draught, capacious, strong, and swift. Some of them were 
built in New York, and made the voyage out by Cape 
Horn. The Englishmen "laughed to see such a craft." 
Their steamers were screws, deep, heavy, with small stow- 
age, able to make only eight miles an hour against the 
current of the Yangtse. They changed countenance when 
they saw these Yankee nondescripts go against the cur- 
rent twelve miles and with it twenty miles an hour ! 
Since then the river has been known as the Yankeetse. 
and the Yankees have had it all their own way. 

Shanghae ! The name is associated in our mind, as 
doubtless it is in the minds of many, with the Hen Fever. 
Who ever heard of Shanghae till the coarse, tall, gawky 
Shanghae fowls made their appearance ? Who does not 
remember those days, when all our conversation was 
about Shanghaes ? People talked Shanghae in the cars, 
going to and from their counting-rooms. We heard it at 
the corners of the streets, in the market, and especially 
at the dinner-table. "We have a Shanghae, my dear, 
to-day," was a common remark of the wife to the hus- 
band when Bridget brought on the fowl. The Shanghae 
department was the most attractive feature of county 
cattle-shows. The fever made its first appearance in 
Massachusetts, and spread throughout New England; 
New Hampshire caught it, then Vermont ; Ehode Island 
had a touch of it ; the Hudson was no barrier, for it 
moved westward like the cholera in its march. One 
summer we sojourned a few weeks at Saratoga, and of 



324 OUR NEW WAY ROJND THE WORLD. 

all the impressions made at that famous watering-place, 
the strongest is the cock-a-doodle-doo of a Shanghae, 
that woke up the eastern section of the town at three, 
a. m., with a blast longer and louder than any blown 
from conch-shell or fish-horn by a farmer's wife calling 
her husband to dinner from the harvest-field. 

This is the garden of China. It has an area of nearly 
fifty thousand square miles, — larger than the State of 
New York. But there are no hills or mountains in 
sight. Comparing it to New York, we must imagine the 
Adirondacks and Alleghanies, and every other elevation, 
levelled to a vast meadow, crossed by innumerable artifi- 
cial canals, connecting with natural creeks and wide rivers. 
The soil is exceedingly fertile, and kept in the highest tilth. 
Three crops a year are harvested. Five hundred years 
ago Marco Polo visited this garden, and made the West- 
ern world incredulous by his account of its wonderful 
fertility. We see bridges across the streams that were 
erected, it is supposed, two thousand years ago. The cot- 
ton-plant has been cultivated here for centuries. Before 
Solomon built his throne of ivory, before Greece had a 
history, the Chinese" were feeding silk-worms on this 
delta, sailing their sampans through these canals, trund- 
ling their one-wheeled carriages through the streets of 
the cities. This great alluvial lowland has been swarm- 
ing with human life, generation after generation, with 
little advancement in science and art. 

In 1841 Admiral Parker, of the British navy, sailed up 
the Wusung, bombarded the towns, took Shanghae, and 
exacted a ransom of nearly one and a half million dollars. 
At the close of the war this city was thrown open to 
foreign trade, which up to that time had been carried on 
at Canton. 

The foreigners located themselves a little below the 
town. In sailing up the Wusung, we come first to the- 



APPEOACH TO SHANGHAE. 325 

American settlement, where the Stars and Stripes are 
waving from a tall staff in front of the consulate. A 
creek spanned by a bridge separates the American from 
the British settlement, and another the British from the 
French, which is nearest the old city. The Chinese are 
sharp-sighted. They have found it profitable to locate 
themselves near foreigners, and so the old city has over- 
flowed its walls, and a large native population is found in 
each settlement, where the streets are wide, macadamized, 
and kept free from filth; but the old city is foul and 
unsavory. 

The growth of the place was rapid for a few years. In 
1856 there were not less than seventy foreign firms. The 
export of tea in that year was seventy-seven million 
pounds, and of silk fifty-six thousand bales. In 1857 
the rebels approached the city. * One after another of 
the interior towns had fallen into their hands, and refu- 
gees by the hundred thousand flocked to Shanghae for 
protection under the guns of English, French, and Ameri- 
can war-ships. The great influx of people gave a mush- 
room growth to the place, which in 1861 was supposed 
to contain over one million inhabitants. Speculation in 
land set in ; fortunes were made in a day ; and there 
were predictions that Shanghae would soon have a popu- 
lation exceeding that of London ; but the final defeat of 
the rebels and suppression of the rebellion sent half a 
million of refugees back to their old homes. Real estate 
became unsalable ; lots which had been held at fabulous 
prices could not be disposed of. Houses in process of 
erection were left unfinished. Then came financial dis- 
aster in England. Old firms having the confidence of the 
community went down. The crash was felt to the very 
heart of China. The failure of Englishmen carried down 
Chinamen here, who in turn carried down others of their 
countrymen in the interior provinces. In the United 



326 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

States during the American war less tea was consumed 
than formerly, as was the case in England. With a cot- 
ton famine in Lancashire, with mill-wheels still, machin- 
ery silent, warehouses filled with unsold goods in London 
and Manchester, people could not drink tea nor wear silk 
dresses. Trade diminished in London and on the Yangtse, 
and Shanghae became one of the dullest of towns. It is 
now recovering from its decline. In 1868 trade came up 
to former figures, and the tea market the present year has 
opened at higher prices than those of last season. The 
reports from the silk districts are favorable. Eeal estate 
is salable at advancing prices, and those who are best 
informed in regard to the resources of China, and who 
believe there is to be an increase of trade with foreign 
nations, predict that this place will have a steady growth, 
and that ultimately it will become one of the great com- 
mercial marts of the world. 

We drop anchor in the stream, and before the chain has 
time to run out the steamer is surrounded by sampans. 
They are all alike, — two great eyes, a caboose amidships 
to shield passengers from sun and rain, painted white, 
with red stripes reaching from stem to stern. The boat- 
men speak broken English. " Melican man go with me." 
The letter r is an insurmountable obstacle to him. " Me 
boat pidgeon." " Me pidgeon row Melican man." (It 
is my business to row an American.) Such the gib- 
berish. They swing their broad-brimmed hats, nourish 
their tails, get into a fracas among themselves in their 
eagerness to make an engagement to take us ashore. It 
is better than witnessing a comedy at the theatre to 
lean over the rail of the steamer and study such a life 
scene. We are in no hurry to take a sampan. We are 
here to see China and the Chinese, and these are amusing 
spectacles. 

In the course of half an hour the ship is warped up to 
the pier, and the boatmen leave us in disgust. 



APPROACH TO SHANGHAE. 



327 



But a real comedy is before us, in which we take part. 
Now comes the contest for the luggage. Six men have 
possession of the trunk, four of the carpet-bag, and two 
are pulling at the roll of shawls. They surge to and 
fro ; toes are crushed, pigtails pulled, and ribs punched. 
Blows and kicks are freely given. There is an indescrib- 
able jargon. Two start off with the trunk, but others 




BATTLE OF SHANGHAE. 



hasten to the rescue. We let them fight awhile, and then 
charge bayonet with an umbrella. A few raps over the 
head, a vigorous push given to another, a kick at a third, 
and a commanding tone of voice, are sufficient to con- 
quer a peace. Giving the traps into the hands of two, 
we leave the pier without further annoyance. 

These battles are a part of a traveller's experience. Let 
the fellows fight awhile, and then he can assert his au- 
thority and give directions. It is so in all Eastern coun- 
tries, — at Constantinople, Alexandria, and Canton as 
well as here. 

A few minutes' walk brings us to the Astor House, 



328 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

a building not quite so imposing as its namesake of New 
York, but clean and comfortable, with good fare, a cour- 
teous landlord and excellent landlady from Old England, 
who do their best to make our stay agreeable. 



CHAPTEE XLIT 

IN THE CITY OF SHANGHAE. 

FKOM our window in the hotel we have a beautiful 
view not only of the English and French quarters, 
but of the harbor as well. The numerous war-ships, 
merchant-vessels, river and ocean steamers, tugs, junks, 
tea-lighters, canal craft, flower-boats, and sampans give 
the place a lively appearance. The hotel being situated 
in the American quarter on the quay, we have an excel- 
lent opportunity of observing this chief shipping port of 
China. 

The tea-ships lie in the stream and receive their cargoes 
from lighters, or from boats which come down the canals. 
The Soochaw Creek enters the Wusung in front of the 
hotel, forming the boundary between the American and 
English quarters. Were we to take passage on the boat 
sailing past, we might go up the creek seventy miles to 
the city of Soochaw, containing more inhabitants than 
New York, and from thence up the imperial canal to the 
Yangtse, and on to Pekin ; or, turning south, we could 
traverse an extensive territory, visiting large cities and 
towns, with villages always in sight. Shanghae being 
the shipping port for all this region, and having such 
superior communication by water with the interior, has 
become the busiest city in China. 



IN THE CITY OF SHANGHAE. 



329 



The transportation of the empire is mainly carried on 
by water ; but in the mountainous districts donkeys 
and pack-horses are 
in use, and in the 
northern section 
two-wheeled carts. 

In the cities and 
along the paths in 
the country one- 
wheeled barrows 
are used for the 
conveyance of pas- 
sengers. They car- 
ry two persons, who 
sit cross-legged on 
a narrow board. No 
bells are needed to 
herald the com- 
ing of these public 
vehicles. The creak- 
ing of the wooden 
axles is so loud and 
sharp, so much like 

the wail of a dumb animal in distress, that we are thank- 
ful when one has passed beyond our hearing. 

The delta of the Yangtse, like that of the Mississippi, 
is raised but a few feet above the river. Marshy ground, 
fresh water five feet below the surface, and insufficient 
drainage are conditions not conducive to health ; and 
Shanghae is not a desirable place to live in. Foreigners 
endure it because of its advantages for trade. Mission- 
aries make it their home, that they may benefit the mil- 
lions around them. 

It is not an attractive field for missionary effort. 
Christian virtues are not always manifested by sailors in 




CHINESE COACH. 



330 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

foreign ports. Jack ashore here takes quite as much 
liberty as when at home, and his deportment does not 
greatly commend Christianity to the Chinese. 

A sailors' chapel has been opened in the suburbs, on 
the southern bank of the river. It is a neat stone edifice, 
and forms a pleasing feature in the view from the hotel. 

It is a pleasure to know that all sailors do not give 
loose reins to passion and appetite while in port. Ac- 
companying the chaplain, Eev. Mr. Syle, on Sunday, we 
find an attentive congregation of about fifty bronzed tars. 
It is affecting to see them drop their dollars into the 
plate as they pass out after service, — money hard earned, 
but given freely to sustain the place of worship. 

There are several American missionaries laboring 
among the Chinese, — Mr. Yates, Mr. Nelson, and Mr. 
Thomson; and although there are so many discourage- 
ments, their labor has not been without its reward. Many 
Chinese have accepted the Christian religion. Sunday 
services in English are held both in the English and 
American sections of the city. It is one of the charac- 
teristics of the Anglo-Saxon, that wherever he goes he 
carries his institutions with him. The representatives 
of this sturdy race at Shanghae cannot get along with- 
out their church, their daily newspaper, race-course, bil- 
liard-tables, club, library, and reading-room, Masonic hall, 
yacht association, and societies for the promotion of 
knowledge. All of these are here, and well sustained. 
A Yankee is keeping a periodical store that would do 
credit to .a Western city, where we can obtain all the 
best magazines and newspapers, as well as the issues of 
the English and American press. Foreigners come here 
to make money, but do not forego the conveniences and 
comforts of home. 

With a gentleman to interpret for us we stroll through 
the city, looking into the shops and tea-houses of Hip 



-k>: 






jf"'^\ 



'ff- 




IN THE CITY OF SHANGHAE. 33 L 

"Wo, Hop Kee, Tin Yuk, and Chung Wo. These are not 
the names of the proprietors, but of their establish- 
ments. 

In the cities of the United States we have the Tremont 
House, the National Hotel, and Lone-Star Saloon. In 
England the Boar's Head, where Falstaff drank his " intol- 
erable deal of sack," and the " Pig with the Poker." In 
Paris we may trade at the " Good Angel," or the " Poor 
Devil " ; but here we are invited to patronize the " Heav- 
enly Jewel,", the " Sincerity and Faith," the " Everlasting 
Harmony." An apothecary keeps " The Hall of Everlast- 
ing Spring." This tea-house, with its benches filled by 
drinkers, is " The Chamber of Fragrant Almonds." The 
newspaper in the hands of this gentleman smoking a 
long-stemmed pipe is the Lin Su Fang, or "Phoenix 
of Talent." The rival house on the opposite side of the 
street is the " Golden Garden of All Peace." 

The gentlemen sitting here at this noonday hour have 
come in to talk business. They do not at once plunge 
into it, but order their tea, converse awhile on other mat- 
ters, and approach the subject of trade only after a profu- 
sion of flowery compliments. 

In nearly every shop we see an inscription, — usually 
a moral aphorism from Confucius, who was the " Poor 
Richard " and Dr. Watts of China ! 

The inscriptions are on scrolls of red paper, with illu- 
minated borders. From Bridgeman's book of Chinese 
Proverbs we select a few to show their character : — 

" If the blind lead the blind, they will both go into the 
pit." 

" A fair wind raises no storm." 

" A man may be deprived of life, but a good name can- 
not be taken from him." 

" Every man sees the faults of others, but cannot dis- 
cern his own." 



332 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

" If the fence is strong the dogs will not get in." 

" What is easily acquired is easily lost." 

" Man contrives, but heaven decrees." 

" A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man 
perfected without trials." 

" A word spoken in the ear is heard a thousand miles 
off." 

" Better not be than be nothing." 

" Great humility is great honor." 

" That which soars not high is not hurt by the fall." 

a It is only the naked who fear the light." 

" If what we see is doubtful, how can we believe what 
is spoken behind the back." 

We reach the liquor-shop of Shun Woo, the " Faith 
and Charity " saloon, while the proprietor is worshipping 
his deceased ancestors. 

The entire front of the establishment is open, and we 
have an unobstructed view of the interior, — bottles of 
brandy, gin, whiskey, wine, and cordials, on the shelves, 
and in the centre of the room a table spread with plates 
of fish, one with a cold chicken, cups of boiled rice, plates 
of sweetmeats and delicacies. The shopkeeper and Ms 
family stand behind the tables. He lights two candles, 
and several incense sticks ; and while the pleasant fra- 
grance fills the room, he kneels, touches the floor with his 
forehead, rises, doubles up his fists, putting his knuckles 
together, raises them to his face, bows and kneels again, 
takes from the table a bunch of silver paper, sets it on 
fire, and stands in reverent attitude till it is consumed. 

This religious ceremony which we have just witnessed 
is to be taken into account in all of our estimates and 
expectations for the future of this country. It will have 
to do with the introduction of railroads, the construc- 
tion of telegraphs, and the advancement of civilization 
and Christianity. 



IN THE CITY OF SHANGHAE. 333 

Filial reverence is religion, and the worship of the 
dead is now the chief religion of the empire. 

The Chinese believe that the world — China in par- 
ticular — is the realm of light, and that after this is the 
world of darkness ; that the dead stand in need of the 
same articles of food and clothing, as well as imple- 
ments of industry, that they did in this. Coats, hats, 
shoes, money, boats, sampans, rice, fish, chickens, are 
needed there as here. As the dead have become invis- 
ible, they of course cannot eat, wear, or use anything 
tangible, but everything must be made invisible. There 
are no coats in that land, no hats, no sampans, but those 
who have gone there are entirely dependent upon their 
friends in this world. Those who are in the light cannot 
see into the darkness, but they, being in the darkness, can 
look out into the light and behold all the acts of the 
living, and it is in their power to reward those who feed 
and clothe them, and to afflict those who forget to relieve 
their necessities. The spirits, if neglected by the liv- 
ing, take their revenge by sending sickness and disease, 
in its various forms, not only upon their relatives, but 
upon the public generally. A dutiful son worships at 
the grave of his father, who rewards him with health and 
prosperity. It is a great misfortune for a Chinaman to 
die in a foreign land away from home, for then he is 
deprived of the benefits of the offerings of his relatives 
and descendants. We see, therefore, why it is that the 
Chinese in California send home the bodies of their coun- 
trymen who die there. They have a fund for that pur- 
pose. The dead would take vengeance upon them if they 
did not perform the filial act. 

The government of the world of darkness is supposed 
to be a counterpart to that of China, from the emperor 
down to the mandarins of one button, and even to the 
policemen. They also believe that character is not 



334 OUR NEW WAY .ROUND THE WORLD. 

changed by death, but that a mandarin, a judge, a police- 
man, can be influenced in that land by bribes, just as in 
this world. 

The ancestral tablet in this " Faith and Charity " sa- 
loon is a small red board, covered with characters setting 
forth the virtues of deceased ancestors. In old families, 
tablets are found dating back many centuries. 

There are temples erected by wealthy men for the 
preservation of the tablets of their fathers, to which 
their own will be added after death. There are no 
edifices more sacred than these ancestral halls. We of 
the Western world trace with pride our connection with 
the family tree back to the ancient trunk which flourished 
on the soil of Old England, and in that " fast-anchored 
isle " the last thing which men part with in adversity 
is the old homestead. We cannot bear the thought 
of being forgotten after death. Our instinct of immor- 
tality ever utters its protest against annihilation. We 
want to be remembered. The heart-ache of Kirk White 
has been felt by millions. Mournful that exclamation 
of his, " Fifty years hence who will think of Henry ! " 

To secure immortality, to cause our names to be held 
in fond remembrance, we found schools and hospitals, 
put stained windows in churches, endow colleges, estab- 
lish libraries, with the hope that we shall not be wholly 
forgotten when we have passed away. In like manner 
this ancestral worship appeals to the deepest instincts of 
the soul. It permeates society, and is the basis almost 
of the political system of the empire. It is the foun- 
dation of the law of inheritance, and to a great degree of 
the land tenure. The chief desire of the Chinaman is 
for children to bear his name, — a son who will care for 
him when he is dead, and make his existence comfort- 
able and pleasant in the future life ; for just in propor- 
tion to the reverence and devotion of the living will be 



IN THE CITY OF SHANGHAE. 335 

ihe happiness of the dead. A daughter is of but little 
account, hence woman's degradation. 

It is the duty of the eldest son to perform these filial 
acts to the dead; hence the laws which give him the 
largest share of the estate, and that keep up the un- 
equal distribution of property through succeeding gen- 
erations. A man having been married a certain number 
of years, and having no son, may marry a second wife, 
or any number of wives, and thus polygamy becomes a 
civil institution. If a man dies without male issue, or 
becomes a Christian, or repudiates the worship of his 
ancestors, he consigns all of them, father, grandfather, 
and great-grandfather, to beggary, and inflicts unknown 
miseries upon the living. 

Eev. Mr. Yates says : " I have known a father threaten 
to take hie own life in order to insure punishment upon 
his only son if he became a Christian ! " 

If one man offends another, the aggrieved will not seek 
revenge by taking the life of his enemy with 'revolver, 
rifle, or by arsenic, as some people are in the habit of 
doing in civilized lands, but will stab himself on the 
doorstep of his enemy, who, under the laws of China, 
will stand a chance of having his head chopped off ! 

To be beheaded is not only the severest punishment 
but the greatest disgrace that can happen to a man ; for 
if a spirit appears in the world of darkness without a 
head, it is prima facie evidence, only the face is wanting, 
that he was a wicked fellow here, and he is at once given 
over by the mandarins of that world to be tormented by 
demons. 

During the late rebellion both parties cut off the heads 
of those slain in battle, that they might be headless in 
the other world. The friends of those who were thus 
decapitated were accustomed to visit the battle-fields and 
unite the heads and bodies ao-ain. We are not informed 



336 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

as to what the effect would be if a head was joined to 
the wrong body, making a composite man ! It must be 
rather queer for a person to find out that he had the 
brains, eyes, mouth, and nose belonging to somebody 
else, or discover that his body was not his own ! 

There are three great festivals during the year, when 
contributions and offerings are made for the dead who 
have no friends to care for them. It is estimated that 
the expenditure in this city for paper, shoes, boats, robes, 
hats, coats, and other articles of clothing for the comfort 
and happiness of the friendless dead, is not less than 
$ 18,000 per annum. With this for a basis, there would 
be expended throughout the empire about thirty million 
dollars per annum in public charity. In addition every 
family has its own offerings to make. Allowing each 
family in the empire to spend one dollar and fifty cents 
per annum, and taking the population at four hundred 
millions, or eighty million families, with five persons to 
each household, we have one hundred and twenty million 
dollars expended in private offerings for the dead, or a 
total of one hundred and fifty millions, including public- 
contributions. This amount goes out in flame and smoke 
burned for the benefit of the dead ! 

Yet this is not prompted by filial affection; for the 
Chinese are not more affectionate than the people of the 
United States. This constant sacrifice for the dead is 
impelled by self-interest and fear, and not by reverence 
alone. The living are slaves to the dead. The genera- 
tions of to-day are chained to those of the past. 

A few steps farther along the street and we are at the 
shop of " Heavenly Benevolence," where articles for the 
dead are sold. A man with two large baskets suspended 
from a bamboo passes us, collecting the gifts that have 
been made for the benefit of deceased sailors, orphans, 
and all who have no living friends to care for them in 



IN THE CITY OF' SHANGHAE. 



337 



the future life. The articles have been exposed in front 
of the shops and houses during the day, that all may see 
how kind-hearted 
and benevolent the 
contributors are. 
Although the Chi- 
nese do not sound 
a trumpet before 
them, as did the 
Pharisees of old 
time, they make 
an ostentatious dis- 
play of their bene- 
factions. 

As the evening 
approaches, the peo- 
ple gather, kindle a 
fire, and cast the 
gifts into the flames. 
Shall we smile at 
the idea ? Was it 
not Friar Tetzel 
who declared that 
as soon as the money chinked in the box, the imprisoned 
soul escaped from purgatory ? Does not the greatest 
church in Christendom still hold to the doctrine that gii'ts 
of money for the saying of mass will transfer a spirit from 
purgatory to paradise ? It is not well for us to ridicule 
the Chinese, in view of all the circumstances. 




REMEMBERING DEPARTED FRIENDS. 



338 OUK NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

CHAPTEE XLIII. 

FUNG S H U E y . 

CHINA is a land of superstitions. Perhaps it is not 
to be wondered at, for gross credulity still lingers in 
communities that call themselves most civilized. Not 
only in England, but in America, communities may be 
found which believe that when a murder is committed 
the innocence or guilt of all persons may be ascertained 
by compelling them to touch the body of the victim. If 
guilty, blood will ooze from the pores. A thunder-storm 
in this country is a sign that the emperor's ministers are 
in a quarrel, and when a fog comes on it is a sure in- 
dication that women are having an undue influence over 
public and private affairs ! It is to be hoped that the 
affairs of our own country will not become foggy under 
the present movement of woman for an enlargement of 
her sphere of action. 

The superstition which perhaps is almost as great a hin- 
drance to progress as ancestral worship is Fung Shuey. 
The literal meaning of the term is " wind and water." To 
comprehend it we must understand the natural philoso- 
phy of these people, and become acquainted with their 
views of the phenomena of the seasons. 

In speculating upon the philosophy of nature, behold- 
ing the putting forth of leaves at the approach of spring, 
the budding of fruits, the unfolding of flowers, before the 
breezes v rom the balmy south on the one hand, and on 
the other noticing the falling of leaves, tne decay of vege- 
tation before the north winds of the fall and winter, 
they have come to the conclusion that all genial and life 



FUNG SHUEY. 339 

giving influences are from the south, and all decaying and 
destructive influences are from the north. Goodness, vir- 
tue, happiness, joy, peace, prosperity, and long life are 
from the south, wafted on the gentle breezes ; but the 
northern blasts blown by the devil, if not turned aside, 
will bring disaster, disease, and death. 

They have not peopled the fields and woods, the moun- 
tains and valleys, with the nymphs and naiads of Grecian 
fables ; Pan does not play his pipe ; there are no dancing 
fauns or pretty sprites in their philosophy; but these 
climatic influences are incarnations, — good spirits from 
the south, bad ones from the north. «. 

Somehow these influences cannot move east or west, 
but are compelled to advance in right Lines from the 
north or south. They cannot turn a corner, and if any 
obstacle is placed in their path, they are effectually 
stopped. 

We smile at the superstition, but to the Chinese it is 
reality and sound philosophy. It is a science, and there 
are numerous doctors of Fung Shuey, — men who are 
called Sien Sangs, who detect the causes of bad Fung 
Shuey and apply proper remedies. 

Some months since the merchants in the city became 
alarmed at the falling off of business, and the Fung 
Shuey doctors were called upon to ascertain the cause. 
They met in solemn council. No consultation of country- 
doctors over a desperate case of typhoid fever could be 
more grave than theirs. After a thorough canvass of the 
case, it was discovered that the north gate of the city 
had no walls before it to arrest the bad spirits, and that in 
consequence they had come in and played their pranks 
among the business men, causing stagnation of trade, fail- 
ures, and hard times generally ! The wall across the 
street was at once erected, and as the devils cannot turn a 
right angle, no more can get in by that portal ! 



340 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

With Eev. Mr. Yates for a guide, we walk down the 
comparatively clean streets of the French settlement, 
and enter the city by the northern gate. The walls are 
of brick, about twenty feet high. We pass some poor 
wretches who obtain their rice by picking up straws^ 
sticks, and reeds from festering muck-heaps, which they 
dry and sell for fuel. By the entrance are itinerant 
venders of doughnuts, barbers, and fortune-tellers. 

We are compelled to turn to the right, as we step in- 
side, — a brick wall being built across the street. 

" This wall is Fung Shuey," says Mr. Yates. 

A few steps farther, and he calls our attention to a bas- 
ket dangling from a pole in front of a chamber window. 

" That also is Fung Shuey." 

The basket was put up to catch any of the bad imps 
who might be aiming to get into the apartment. 

Down the street a few rods we see a board fence built 
in front of windows which face the north, and are in- 
formed that the fence is Fung Shuey. 

We notice a rude picture of a Chinese deity on the 
wall with a lamp burning before it, reminding us of the 
pictures of the Virgin on the walls of old Eome. 

" More Fung Shuey." 

Our stroll takes us to the Mission church, a plain edi- 
fice with a Gothic tower ; near by is the yamun, or palace 
of a mandarin. He calls our attention to its situation, 
and says, "Here we have some Fung Shuey which is 
connected with our church edifice." While the city was 
besieged by the rebels the mandarin who occupied the 
palace near Mr. Yates's church died, and all the Fung 
Shuey doctors said his death was caused by the tower 
of the church, which kept off the good spirits but let 
in the bad. 

After the rebels were driven away, a deputation of 
officials waited upon the missionaries, and stated that, as 



FUNG SHUEY. 



341 



the lower had caused the death of a mandarin, no one 
was willing to come under its baleful influence, and that 
for the good of the community it must be torn down. 
The missionaries proposed to discuss the matter, but the 
officials declined the offer and appealed to higher au- 
thorities to remove the palace to some other quarter of 
the city. This was not granted. The doctors of Fung 
Shuey were then called in council, and it was finally 
decided to rebuild the edifice, which had been nearly de- 
stroyed by the rebels, in such a way that when the bad 
devils came down from the north they ..would strike the 
outer wall of the palace at a sharp angle, just as the 
current of a swift river strikes the cutwater of a clipper, 
and thus be turned aside. Perhaps the doctors fancied 
the imps would go plump against the church. Had we 




FUNG SHUEY. 



the philosophy of these people, and were our sight re- 
fined enough to penetrate the realm of these spirits, pos- 
sibly we should see a heap of imps at the foot of the 
church-tower ! 



342 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

This superstition is universally believed in by the 
wisest mandarin of three buttons as well as by the 
poorest and most ignorant cooly, and the attempts of 
individuals to ward off bad spirits by the erection of 
fences, walls, baskets, and the planting of trees, to the 
detriment of their neighbors, leads to constant litigation. 
It must be borne in mind that Fung Shuey affects the 
dead as well as the living, and the greatest care is taken 
to protect graves from evil influences. 

" Here," says Mr. Yates, " we get at the cause of the 
hostility of the Chinese to foreigners." We are inno- 
vators ; we disturb Fung Shuey, keep out the good and 
let in a legion of bad spirits. We want to set up tele- 
graph-poles, open coal-mines ; and build railroads, which 
would disturb the dead ; for if railroads are constructed, 
the Chinese will be compelled to gather up the bones of 
their fathers, put them in pots, and remove them to other 
localities. 

With this insight into the religion of China, we can 
better comprehend the reason for the deaclness of the 
empire. The people think constantly of the dead; every 
motive of action has reference to the reward or punish- 
ment they will receive from their ancestors. How can a 
nation advance while dragging a hundred generations ? 
Their thoughts and aspirations are circumscribed by their 
slavish fear of the dead. An innovator — a man who 
does what the fathers did not do — perils the happiness 
of both the living and the dead. Foreigners are inno- 
vators, therefore to be resisted. Hence all advancement 
thus far has been made by superior force, — by the can- 
non's argument. Every treaty that has been made with 
foreign powers has been wrung from a government re- 
luctant to disturb the old order of things. We see why 
missionaries have such up-hill work, and wonder at what 
they have accomplished ; we see why the Chinese are 



FUNG SHUEY. 343 

determined not to have railroads. The empire is a 
graveyard. Railroads are remorseless ; they cut through 
the cities of the living and of the dead alike. A railroad 
running ten miles in China would disturb the whole 
spirit-realm. Unlucky strokes from spades might sever 
skulls from vertebrae in some ancestral burial-ground, and 
then there would be headless ghosts wandering through 
the land of darkness, and sickness, pestilence, calamity, 
and untold horrors would settle upon China. Firmness 
only on the part of the Western nations in the revision 
of the treaties will forward Christian civilization in this 
benighted land. China will advance only by pressure 
from without. The inertia of the mass is too great to 
move of itself along the path of modern civilization. 
When that screeching innovator, the locomotive, begins to 
move across the plains of this Flowery Land, ploughing 
up old bones, breaking the chains which bind the living 
to the dead, there will be hope for China. It will yet do 
for China what it is doing for India. It is a powerful 
missionary. Idols, caste, prejudices, sacred bulls, Brah- 
mans, customs, religions, laws, governments, dynasties, 
pashas, mandarins, and kings are borne clown by that 
great leveller. No other agent of civilization can be so 
potent in these Eastern lands, not even the press. 

There is a strong anti-foreign party composed of man- 
darins, officials, and literary men, who fear that the intro- 
duction of machinery, with liberty for foreigners to go 
where they please, and carry on trade, will in the end 
diminish their power and influence. In October last the 
emperor sent a secret note to the governor-general of 
the two provinces of Kiangsi and Nganwhei, calling for 
his views in regard to the revision of the treaties with 
foreign powers. 

This official, Tseng, who is a mandarin of high rank, 
and one of the ablest in the empire, has prepared a curious 



344 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

document. He says that " the object of foreigners in 
coming to China and trading largely in goods is to 
follow out their nefarious devices of depriving others 
of advantages, and they wish to damage the mer- 
chants of China." He draws a picture of the deplor- 
able condition of the empire, and attributes it to the 
throwing open of the treaty ports and the presence of 
foreign steamers, which have ruined trade and driven 
off junks. 

He says : " If small steamers be allowed in the interior, 
native craft of every size, sailors, and pilots will suffer ; 
and if they are allowed to construct telegraphs and rail- 
roads, owners of carts, mules, chairs, and inns, and the 
coolies, will suffer." 

We do not wonder at such an expression ; it is the 
same old cry which has been raised in every land against 
public improvements. What a prejudice Stephenson had 
to encounter in England before getting the first railroad 
started ! Land-owners, turnpike-men, owners of fast 
horses, proprietors of stage lines, lords, dukes, and earls, 
opposed the introduction of railroads with just such argu- 
ments. The ablest lawyers of the realm, politicians in 
the Commons and peers in the House of Lords drew 
gloomy pictures of the ruin and distress which railroads 
would bring upon the country. And to-day the farm 
laborers of England are smashing mowers and reapers, be- . 
cause they compete, as they think, with manual labor. 

But Governor-General Tseng is not altogether an old 
fogy. He is anxious to introduce foreign machinery into 
the coal-mines on the Yangtse and in the Northern 
Peninsula. The Chinese are mining the surface veins, 
and the coal, though of poor quality, is used by the river 
steamers in their downward trips. It is believed that 
veins lower in the strata will yield a better article. The 
governor-general says : — 



FUNG SHUEY. 345 

" It would enrich China to borrow appliances for ex- 
tracting coal, and it would appear to deserve a trial." 

The position which he would have the emperor take 
is summed up in the following sentence : — 

" With respect to the points that are not highly obnox- 
ious, we not only should not contend over them much ; 
we should grant them, if asked. It is only as to rail- 
roads, steamers, salt, and residence in the interior for 
trade, as destructive to our people's interest, that a stren- 
uous fight should be made." 

It has been known, for some time, that there are gold 
deposits in the mountains of the Shangtung province, 
which lies north of Shanghae half-way to Pekin. The 
mandarins have kept a close watch over the -country, 
driving off all gold-seekers, dreading an irruption of red- 
shirted men from California and Australia. But the Chi- 
nese have at last broken loose. The people have set the 
officials at defiance, and have gone to work washing the 
gold from the streams. They are called the Cheefoo mines, 
and are easy of access. How extensive or how rich the 
deposit is not known. Should they prove to be rich, 
Tseng's recommendations for keeping out foreigners will 
be of no avail. The Chinese themselves have caught the 
gold-fever. So many of them have been in California that 
they are keenly alive to anything relating to gold-mining. 
The mines bring business, and there are no sharper or 
shrewder men in the world than the Chinese. 

" The best thing that could happen to China," says a 
leading American merchant, " would be the introduction 
of a few thousand California gold-miners." The irruption 
of such an element, if not too violent, would infuse new 
life- into the dead mass. 

In 1849 one of the high officers of the empire was 
sent into exile for publishing a geography, for eulo- 
gizing the character of Washington, and praising the 

15* 



346 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

people of other lands, especially of the United States. 
Up to that time the Chinese believed that they were the 
mightiest people under the sun, the favored of Heaven. 
The emperor signed himself " Son of Heaven." There 
was no other country so grand. There was no south pole, 
no Antarctic continent. Their map of the world was 
like a shawl, China being the shawl and all other coun- 
tries the fringe. This high official, the lieutenant-governor 
of Foochow, had come in contact with the American 
missionaries, acquired a knowledge of geography and 
history, and astonished his countrymen by issuing a work 
in ten volumes, with forty -two maps, which as completely 
upset old Chinese ideas as did the discovery of America 
those of- the cardinals and prelates of the Church in 
1492. The empire which, from all time, had been the 
great " Middle Kingdom " of the universe, was seen to be 
but a mere patch on the surface of the globe ; and the 
high eulogy of the character of Washington, his patriot- 
ism, his prowess, placed him on a par with the old he- 
roes of the empire, who flourished, according to Chinese 
chronology, four thousand years ago. The emperor was 
swift to take vengeance upon one who had thus degraded 
the empire and brought himself, the "Son- of Heaven," 
down from his exalted position. The offender was sent 
into exile, and was only restored last year. One of the 
last official acts of Mr. Burlingame was the presentation 
to him of a copy of Stuart's picture of Washington. He 
is now in office again at Pekin. 

There is not much strength in the Imperial govern- 
ment, and we have met men here who say that it cannot 
last long, that it will soon fall to pieces, that the dis- 
integrating elements at work are increasing in force. 
When Mr. Burlingame started from Pekin, on his foreign 
mission, he was in danger of capture by banditti, and was 
obliged to send to Tientsing for an escort of marines. 



FUNG SHUEY. 347 

The marauders are still having things their- own way. 
It is reported that the Southwest Province, Yunan, has 
set up a government of its own, and we have intelli- 
gence that the Mohammedans of the western provinces 
have thrown off allegiance to the emperor, and are waging 
war against idolatry. This is in China proper, territory 
which lies east of the ninety-ninth meridian. Beyond that 
are Thibet and Turkestan, which are nearly as large as 
all the rest of the empire, that have paid tribute for many 
years, but now have broken loose from the Manchu 
dynasty. ' 

These events are regarded as the beginning of a com- 
plete dissolution. But, on the other hand, the Pekin 
government is undoubtedly stronger to-day than it was 
when the Taepings were besieging Shanghae, were in 
possession of the whole valley of the Yangtse and rioting 
in the imperial city of Nankin. The lopping off of the 
tributary countries may give strength instead of produ- 
cing weakness. The danger of the empire lies in the 
independence and authority of the governor-generals of 
the provinces, who do pretty much as they please, piling 
on taxes and plundering the people for their own benefit. 

The Pekin government has made a good beginning. 
The appointment of foreigners in the customs ; the estab- 
lishment of the College of Pekin, with Eev. Dr. Martin, 
'an American missionary, at its head ; the appointment of 
Mr. Burlingame ; the general friendliness toward foreign- 
ers, especially Americans, augurs well for the future of 
China and the advancement of American interests. 

In our outlook toward the future, the part which Rus- 
sia is playing in the East must not be forgotten. Her 
influence is powerful in Mongolia. The caravan trade 
between China and the chief towns of Siberia is im- 
mense. At the proper season of the year it is not a diffi- 
cult journey to Kiachta. Couriers are sent from Pekin 



348 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

every week with telegraphic despatches, which are trans- 
mitted from that place. By that route the information 
of Mr. Burlingame's appointment was sent to the United 
States. General Ignatieff, the moving spirit of Eussian 
diplomacy at the present time, was formerly Minister 
at Pekin. Before his appointment to this post he had 
military command in Central Asia. He understands 
China and the Chinese, and, under the ever-aggressive 
Muscovite policy, the forces of Eussia, civil and military, 
are creeping constantly nearer to the Great Wall. It 
was under Ignatieff s policy that the vast region north of 
Corea was annexed to Eussia. The arms of the Czar are 
triumphant at Bokhara. Mountain ranges and deserts 
are not formidable obstacles to a people whose home is 
among northern ice-fields, whose banners have waved 
over Paris, who held the Malakoff so many months 
against the combined forces of England, France, Italy, 
and Turkey. In the course of time the Western nations 
may look for the quiet transfer of Mongolia to Eussia. 
China can make no fight against anybody. There is not 
• force enough in the body politic to create an army able 
to contend against the disciplined troops of Western 
nations ; and whenever Eussia sees it for her interest to 
extend her Mongolian frontier, there will be no resist- 
ance. 



CHAPTEE XLIV. 

FESTIVALS. 

TO the native watchman of Shanghae, especially to 
him whose beat is around our hotel, Dogberry's ad- 
dress is most appropriate : " You are thought here to be 
the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the 
watch." 



FESTIVALS. 



349 



Through the night we hear the sound of his bamboo 
staff upon the pavement, beating the ground to let all 
rogues know that he is about. With the thumping of the 
bamboo and the croaking of several hundred thousand 
frogs without, and the singing of five hundred thousand 
nine hundred and ninety-nine million mosquitoes within, 
we have little sleep ! The census of croakers and singers, 
like that of the four hundred millions of people in the 
empire, is not supposed to be exact, but only an approxi- 
mation towards the true number. The soloists and grand 
chorus of the amphibious minstrels, and the multitudi- 
nous voices of the winged choir, are musical in compari- 
son to the jargon between the watch and several "vagrom 
men," who persist 
in hallooing 
howling on 
grand festival night 
dedicated to drag- 
ons. 

There are numer- 
ous festivals, held 
at different seasons 
of the year, in honor 
of deities and drag- 
ons. The epidemics 
which sometimes 
sweep over this del- 
ta in summer are 
believed to be un- 
der the control of 
the "Five Emper- 
ors,'.' whose temple 
we saw at Canton. 
These Emperors are 
devil deities, who "black spirits and white. 





350 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

send forth their messengers in various forms to poison 
the air. 

To ward off such calamity it is necessary to propitiate 
their good- will. There are two classes whose favor must 
be won, the white and lofty and the black and dumpy 
demons. They are hollow figures. The first named are 
twelve to fifteen feet high, with tall hats and white robes. 
They are carried by men who walk within them, wholly 
concealed from view. 

The demons of darkness are like dwarfs at a masquer- 
ade, clothed in black. These images are borne by boys, 
who, like their fellow-spirits in white, are concealed 
within the hideous figures. 

The procession passes through streets, avenues, by- 
ways, fields, and gardens, and the Emperors thus hon- 
ored are supposed to withdraw their messengers of evil. 
But notwithstanding all this, malarious diseases prevail 
at Shanghae and in other parts of the delta during the 
summer. Fevers are frequent, and cholera sometimes 
makes frightful ravages. 

The transitions from heat to cold are sudden. In 
spring and autumn a change of 20° in a few hours is not 
uncommon. The annual rain-fall is about fifty inches. 
In July and August the air is saturated with moisture, 
and showers are frequent. Our boots, that have been in 
a closet twenty-four hours, are covered with green mould ; 
the linen in our trunks is breaking out with yellow spots ; 
books become musty. Fires are kindled on rainy days to 
dry up the dampness, and every moment of bright sun- 
shine is improved to air clothing. Foreigners who can 
get away run over to Japan or up to the hills of Cheefoo, 
in Northern China ; but the Chinese take the means al- 
ready described to drive off the bad spirits that produce 
all this dampness, mouldiness, and accompanying sick- 
ness. 



FESTIVALS. 351 

The display on this festival day is not alone in the 
streets of the town, but every Chinese boat on the river 
is decorated. 

When at Canton we thought that in no other part of 
the world could there be found so great a collection of 
sea-going and river craft, but Shanghae takes the palm. 
Boats are here that were built under the shadow of the 
Himalayas and the mountains of Thibet, or came through 
the grand canal from the Yellow Eiver, brinoing to mar- 
ket the productions of Tartary. They are packed a hun- 
dred deep, in lines ; moored in blocks like the squares 
of a city, with passage-ways — water streets — between 
them, through which in a sampan we work our way. 

To count them would be a hopeless undertaking ; we 
can only reckon them by the acre or square mile. Up 
and down, as far as we can see, they are fastened to the 
bank, anchored in the stream, or tied to each other. It 
is a city of boats, the floating homes of a multitude of 
people. 

From every mast there waves " a banner with a strange 
device," — dragons spitting fire, gods with goggle-eyes ; 
escutcheons emblazoned with mottoes from Confucius and 
other sages of this Flowery Land. 

Beaching the landing, we take a look at the native city. 
The streets are filthy. Fertilizers are collected, not in 
closely covered carts, for no cart was ever seen inside the 
walls of this old town. Coolies ladle the contents of 
vaults and cesspools into open buckets at midday. The 
perfume of peach-bloom, hyacinth, and heliotrope is cer- 
tainly more fragrant, though not so powerful, as the odors 
in this old city of Shanghae. 

It being a festival day, many of the shops are closed, 
and the citizens are drinking tea, smoking, playing cards, 
or, if of a literary turn of mind, reading novels or books 
of poems. 



352 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

The modern literature of China consists mainly of the 
history and geography of their own land, and of fiction 
and poetry. 

In the bookstores may be obtained novels which are 
quite as useful and entertaining as many published in 
the United States. Here too we may purchase the works 
of the most popular modern poet of their country, Lin, 
who was born at Foochow in 1787. He was distin- 
guished not only as a scholar and poet, but as an officer 
of the government. He was prefect of Canton in 1838, 
and destroyed the twenty thousand chests of opium de- 
livered to him by the English. He appears to have been 
an efficient officer, and carried out his instructions with 
so much vigor that he was degraded and sent into exile 
in the extreme northwest province of the empire, on the 
borders of Tartary. The title conferred upon him by the 
emperor while he was in favor was " The Literary and 
Faithful." He died in 1851. A volume entitled the 
" Eagle- Shooting Turret," containing selections from his 
writings, was published soon after his decease.* 

While in exile he received the portrait of his wife, who 
was an estimable and highly educated lady, but who had 
a paralyzed hand, to which allusion is made in the sweet 
and tender lines written upon the receipt of the pic- 
ture : — 

" Like the wild waterfowls, in mutual love 
Each upon each dependent, did we move ; 
But now, grief-stricken , a poor, lonely man, 
I roam in desolate exile ! Still the ban 
Of separation is less hal'd from thee, 
Beloved ! than would the horse-hide cerement t be ! 

* Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Part 
III. 1851, 1852. 

t Ma Ynen, a hero of the Han dynasty, in order to show his devotion 
to his country, exclaimed: "Let me die in battle, and my corpse be 
wrapped up and sent home in a horse's hide." 



FESTIVALS. 353 

Why should I weep 1 — I breathe the mountain air, 
Although a herdsman's humble garb I wear. 
Vet I must weep, for my mind's troubled eye 
Sees thee on suffering's couch of misery ; 
Thy gay cosmetics all neglected, — thou 
Dost never seek the flattering mirror now ; 
Yet thy fair characters, in verse outpoured, 
Have raptured all my soul, — mine own adored ! 
I see thee, welcome thee, in every line 
Whose every pencil touch, dear wife ! is thine ! 

Oft think I of thy shrivelled hand again ! 

Well may it guide a melancholy pen ! g 

Shall it not be restored ? the wondrous gem 

Shines on thy verses, spiritualizing them 

As with a heavenly agency.* 

Grass of gold t 

Thou scatterest ; and thy mystic strains unrolled 

Make my heart vibrate. There 's a power in song 

Stronger than sorrow ; was not Tsai Liuen f strong 

In all her grief 1 how blest, my wife ! to hear 

Thy heart-thoughts poured so sweetly in mine ear, 

As if thy very soul were stamped in strains 

Of truth and love, to lighten all my pains." 

This grand festival day is brought to a close by the 
burning of innumerable fire-crackers, joss-sticks, and gilt 
paper for the benefit of friends in the spirit-world. Fam- 
ilies invite their friends to dine with them at a neigh- 
boring tea-house, or on a flower-boat, and thus the entire 
day is given to pleasure. 

* The wondrous gem refers to the sudden cure of a deformity of the 
hand, which is reported to have happened to a wife of Kow Kwo, under 
the Han dynasty. 

t This refers to the lanceolated strokes formed by the Chinese pencil in 
writing, and which are much admired. 

J Tsai Liuen was a fairy, who married a man called Wan Sun. She 
wrote poetry to support herself, and bore her misfortunes with much 
serenity. 



354 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



CHAPTEK XLV. 

ROMANISM IN CHINA. 

ACCOMPANIED by our landlord, we ride through the 
English settlement, strike into the Soochow road, 
pass the limits of the city, and gain the open country. 
The fields and gardens are swarming with men and 
women at work with hoes among the young cotton-plants. 
The country is intersected with canals, and in all directions 
we see white sails apparently moving along the surface of 
the land. People of all conditions are abroad, — wealthy 
gentlemen and merchants in sedans ; coolies going to 
market, carrying baskets filled with garden products ; Eng- 
lish sportsmen trying their horses on the race-course ; half 
a dozen sailors having a jolly time at a beer-shop. 

The picture would be incomplete were we to leave out 
a poor beggar lugging the decaying carcass of a cat, so 
long dead that it taints the air. 

" What have you there, John ? " 

" Chow chow ! " 

A broad grin lights up his tawny face as he holds up 
his prize. It is not often that he tastes animal food, but 
to-day he is going to have a meat dinner ! 

Our way is through a cemetery. Graves are all around 
us. The masonry of the ancient tombs crumbled long- 
ago, but the grass-grown mounds remain, undisturbed 
from century to century. 

We notice a common receptacle for children who die 
before they are old enough to have their heads shaved. 
It is a structure fifteen or twenty feet square, covering a 
deep weii that contains the decaying dust of thousands 



ROMANISM IN CHINA. 355 

of infants. The child who dies without having his head 
shaved, not being entitled to a coffin, is reckoned a non- 
entity ; but if he lives to have the hair braided, he is en- 
titled to respect after death. It is his badge of honor. 
He has the queue of life. 

Farther on we come to a Foundling Hospital established 
by the Jesuits, a spacious brick building, four stories in 
height, with a church edifice attached. Looking through 
the gateway of the enclosure, we see a troop of boys in 
the garden, — foundlings, orphans, and <some who have 
been purchased of their parents to be trained for the 
church. 

The interior of the church is small; it has marble 
floors, altars along the walls, poor pictures of scenes in 
the life of Christ and the Saints, tawdry paper flowers, 
and a great show of tinsel around the high altar. At one 
of the side chapels a Chinese youngster is kneeling, kiss- 
ing the tiles, dipping his fingers in the holy water, and 
making the sign of the cross. The prayers are in Latin, 
—just about as intelligible to these children as Cherokee 
or Choctaw. As it is not necessary for the worshipper 
to understand what he is mumbling, he might as well 
repeat a stanza from Mother G-oose. And yet, for all 
this, Eomanism is doing a work in China which will 
be more clearly seen years hence than at the present 
time, — that of bringing the people to acknowledge the 
existence of one God. The great advantages obtained by 
the French priests, — the adroitness, energy, persever- 
ance, unflagging zeal, and wealth of the church on ac- 
count of the restoration of property confiscated two hun- 
dred years ago, — all these combined influences will go far 
toward making Catholicism the dominant religion of the 
empire. In this hospital we have a good illustration of 
the far-sightedness of the Catholic clergy. They have 
great schemes for the future. These children have been 



356 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

forsaken by fathers and mothers, and the priests have 
taken them up. They will be trained for the church, 
will have a livelihood, which in this country is an im- 
portant matter, and their power will soon be felt as 
teachers, priests, and missionaries, throughout the land. 

The influence of Eome in China dates back to the year 
1288, when Pope Nicholas IV. sent Corvino, an Italian, 
to labor as a missionary in this country. He built a 
church at Pekin, and baptized several thousand persons. 
Intercourse between Eome and China was overland in 
those days. It was a long, uncertain journey. Affairs 
in Europe occupied the attention of the Popes, and their 
missionaries in the East were neglected, and little was 
accomplished. It was not till 1581 that the attempt was 
renewed of converting the Chinese to Christianity. In 
that year Eicci, an Italian, reached Canton, disguised as a 
Buddhist priest. He began his work cautiously, was well 
received, and in time assumed his true character. No 
obstacle was placed in his way by the government or 
people. Other priests were sent out under the control of 
the Jesuits. Success attended their efforts. Eicci was a 
shrewd man, and cultivated the friendship of the Chinese. 
The Anecdotes de la Chine has a notice of the labors of 
this preacher of the faith, which, if true, allows us to 
conclude that his Christianity was not of a high order. 
The author of the work, himself a Eomanist, says : — 

" The kings found in him a man full of complaisances, 
the pagans a minister who accommodated himself to their 
superstitions, the mandarins a politic courtier, and the 
Devil a faithful servant, who, far from destroying, estab- 
lished his reign among the heathen, and even extended it 
to Christians ! " 

He adopted the practice of sacrificing to Confucius and 
the ancestors, and placed a cross wreathed with flowers 
among the idols in the temples. Converts multiplied, 



KOMANISM IN CHINA. 357 

and monasteries, convents, and churches were established 
in many places. 

Up to this period the Jesuits had control of the church 
in China, but the contest between that order and the 
Dominicans in Europe for supremacy extended to this 
country and raged fiercely. Plots and counter-plots were 
laid. The Jesuits intrigued in political affairs. The gov- 
ernments of Europe at this time were expelling the order. 
They were driven from France in 1593 ; from Venice, 
1606 ; Poland, 1607 ; and Bohemia, 1619., 

From the earliest records of authentic history, the 
Chinese government has been tolerant of all religions. 
The people might believe what they pleased, worship 
after their own inclination, preach any faith, provided it 
did not interfere with the government. 

The priests, after the death of Eicci, which occurred in 
1610, were wanting in worldly wisdom. The principles of 
the order 'made them arrogant. They demanded obedience 
of their converts to themselves rather than to the govern- 
ment. 

An emperor came to the throne in 1723 who deter- 
mined to rule. A large number of priests were banished, 
and edicts passed, ordering the few who were permitted 
to remain at Canton to give no cause for complaint. 
Some of those who were exiled returned. They were 
subjected to persecution, and the property of the church 
confiscated, but they were never wholly driven out. ■ 

When the French brought forward the treaty lately 
signed between France and China, one article stipulated 
that all the property confiscated two hundred years age 
should be restored to the Jesuits. 

" It is impossible," said the emperor's ministers. 

" It must be done," was the reply of the French com- 
mission. 

" Who can tell where it was situated ? How can it be 



358 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

identified ? There have been great commotions, — a great 
many changes since then. We cannot find it," said the 
ministers. 

" Of course there may be some difficulty ; but if the 
fathers of the church can identify the property, your 
Highnesses will restore it ? " said the bland commissioners. 

" yes ; if they can show that it was once owned by 
the church," was the reply ; and the article went into the 
treaty. 

A few months later the " Fathers " appeared at Pekin 
with a great bundle of title-deeds and documents, yel- 
lowed by time, and mouldy from their long repose in the 
archives of the Propaganda at Eome ! 

The emperor's ministers were confounded, but there. 
was no help for it ; and so the church to-day is in pos- 
session of immense estates in nearly every city of the 
empire. 

In Shanghae there are long ranges of buildings in the 
heart of the city which have been restored under that 
article of the treaty. The income from these estates is 
very large. 

The difference in ceremony between the religion of the 
Chinese and that of the Catholic Church is so slight that 
the Eoman Church finds it easy to make converts. In- 
cense, candles, and lamps are always burning before the 
idols of the temples, just as before the altars of Eome. 
The priests appear in yellow robes, recite prayers in con- 
cert, or responsively, with such intonations as are heard 
in St. Peter's. 

Paper flowers adorn the altars, and there is bowing, 
kneeling, passing from the left to the right, from right to 
left, as in the Catholic ceremonial. 

A Chinaman entering a Protestant church sees no 
images or pictures, and he comes to the conclusion that 
the Protestants are altogether godless ; but he enters 



ROMANISM IN CHINA. 359 

a Jesuit church and sees a better class of images than 
those he is accustomed to worship, and pictures more 
beautiful than those upon the walls of his own temples. 
Romish priests are more gorgeously arrayed than those 
who minister at the altar of Buddha, and he inhales 
sweeter incense than that ascending from joss-sticks. The 
music of the choir and the deep-toned organ is more 
pleasing than the rub-a-dub of drums. Is it any wonder 
that the churches are thronged at morning mass or at 
the hour for vespers ? * 

A gentleman at Shanghae, who speaks the language, 
has travelled through several of the provinces dressed 
as a Chinaman, and has had excellent opportunities for 
observation, says, " Of the missionary effort put forth in 
China, at least ninety per cent is by the Catholics." 

The French minister has been pressing the Imperial 
government in another direction. He has obtained a 
decree permitting the priests to decide all questions of 
law between Chinese Catholics and those who still adhere 
to the Chinese religion. Secretly and persistently Rome 
is laboring to obtain possession of China. 

In 1846 there were twelve bishops, seven coadjutors, 
eighty foreign Jesuit missionaries, and ninety native priests 
employed. The number of converts at that time was not 
far from four hundred thousand. It is estimated there 
are now more than seven hundred thousand. 

They are baptized, required to attend mass and the 
confessional, and contribute to spread the gospel. They 
must abjure all their old idols, but may worship Mary 
and the Saints. 

The converts are supplied with saintly charms. These 
are worn about their persons, and have power to protect 
them from dragons. Superstition, old beliefs, and cere- 
monials are so artfully interwoven with the superior at- 
tractions of the new religion,- that there are multitudes 



3 fi'O OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

ready to accept it. Protestants must be prepared to see 
a rapid development of the Eoman Catholic religion in 
this quarter of the globe. 

The Protestant religion has made slow progress, and we 
do not wonder at it. The first effort towards introducing 
it was made by Dr. Morrison in 1807. He had first to 
acquire the language, then translate the Bible, which, 
when translated, is not easy of comprehension by the 
Chinese. Christian ideas cannot well be conveyed by 
the Chinese language, for want of proper terms, and a 
great portion of Biblical history is incomprehensible, 
because of its allusions to rites, ceremonies, and customs 
with which they are unacquainted. The opening of 
Mark's Gospel, in our translation, is as follows : — 

" The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son 
of God." 

" This," says Mr. Nevius, " seems perfectly simple to 
us, and it may appear strange to some that any difficulty 
can be found in it ; but almost every word is an enigma 
to a Chinaman. According to the Chinese idiom the 
translation runs thus : — 

" ' God's Son Jesus Christ Gospel beginning.' 

" The word ' God ' suggests a thousand deities, supernal 
and infernal, but certainly not the God of the Bible. . . . 
The names of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, are translated 
by Chinese characters resembling, as nearly as possible, 
the sounds of the original, and representing simply for- 
eign names without meaning or associations. 'Gospel' 
is translated by two characters meaning respectively 
'happiness' and 'sound,' but the combination is a new 
and peculiar one, and it would be difficult for the unin- 
structed reader to tell with certainty its meaning. The 
last word, ' beginning,' which is evidently connected with 
the two preceding it, forming the expression ' happiness, 
sound, beginning,' affords no assistance towards making 



KOMANISM IN CHINA. 361 

it intelligible. Each of the following verses, looked at 
from the Chinese stand-point, presents similar difficulties, 
and is liable to some other misconception." 

A foreigner, attempting to acquire the Chinese lan- 
guage, and discouraged by his futile efforts, declared that 
it must have been invented by the Devil. It is abstract, 
hard, uncouth. Years of constant practice are required 
to enable one to comprehend it. To translate the Bible, 
and make it intelligible to the natives, was a difficulty 
which had to be surmounted at the outset. 

Morrison labored seven years before he found a con- 
vert, and the first church was not gathered till twenty- 
eight years after he commenced teaching. Then came 
the opium war. The forcing of the drug upon the empire 
by a nation calling itself Christian prejudiced the people 
against the new religion. Foreign shipmasters and mer- 
chants were supposed to be Christians, but their morality 
often was of a lower grade than that taught by Confucius. 
Their deportment did not commend Christianity. Not- 
withstanding all this, the progress made by the Protestant 
missionaries has been quite rapid during the last few 
years. 

The number of missionaries in China in 1865 was one 
hundred and eighty-seven. Of these ninety-two were 
American, seventy-eight English, and seventeen German. 
The present number of native church-members is not far 
from three thousand. About two hundred native preach- 
ers and teachers are employed. No theological school 
has yet been established for the training of preachers, 
and the native helpers have no commentaries or other 
books to enable them to explain the Bible. But the 
Chinese are a reading people, and the leaves of Scripture 
scattered here and there are read till worn out. 

Protestantism as yet has only obtained a foothold. Its 
success lies all in the future, 
le 



362 



OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 




UP THE YANGTSE. 363 



CHAPTEE XLYI. 

UP THE YANGTSE. 

THE Yangtse-kiang is one of the largest rivers of the 
globe, surpassed in grandeur only by the Amazon 
and Mississippi. Some geographers have placed it fourth 
on the list, giving the third place to the Nile, but the 
flood poured out by the Yangtse is far greater than that 
which flows from the plateau of Central Africa into the 
Mediterranean. Its source is three thousand miles dis- 
tant from the ocean, among the mountains of Thibet. 

That region has not yet been reached by explorers, and 
it lies temptingly before the geographer, naturalist, and 
traveller. It is almost the only portion of the globe 
which has not been traversed by scientific men. The 
river is navigable for ships of the largest size to Hankow, 
a distance of nearly six hundred miles. Sea-going steam- 
ers can ascend about eleven hundred miles, while light- 
draft, flat-bottomed river steamers, it is believed, can 
ascend to the very base of the Himalayas. 

It is the great artery of the empire and its grand high- 
way of commerce. Like all rivers which flow through 
countries where the rain-fall is large, it is subject to great 
changes. The water begins to rise in March and attains 
its highest level in July, when, like the Mississippi, it 
submerges the lowlands. Frequently there is great de- 
struction of property, but the annual inundation has its 
compensating features in the fertilizing deposits left be- 
hind when the waters recede. 

This mighty stream is to be in the future, far more 
than now, an avenue for foreign trade. Great cities stand 



364 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

upon its banks. The mercantile marine afloat upon these 
waters transports the merchandise of two hundred and 
fifty millions of people. 

The English were first here with heavy sea-going steam- 
ers drawing twelve to fifteen feet of water ; but enter- 
prising Americans brought out such boats as navigate the 
Hudson, and by their superior speed, carrying capacity, 
and economy have driven the English from the river. 

At four o'clock in the morning, while the dawn is light- 
ing the eastern horizon, the Kiang Loon, "the Eiver 
Dragon," swings from its moorings, and we go down the 
Wusung with the tide, wheel into the broad estuary of 
the Yangtse, bound for the heart of China. 

The commander, Captain Friend of Gloucester, Mass., 
has been navigating the stream so long that he is as 
familiar with its windings, eddies, currents, sand-bars, 
and mud-banks as a Cape Cod skipper with his own 
coast. 

Our destination is Hankow, and we have one hundred 
and fifty miles to make before reaching the most northern 
bend. Eunning at times close in shore, we see creeks, 
inlets, and canals leading through the green meadows in 
all directions. We might sail hundreds of miles through 
this delta, finding canals and water-ways as numerous 
and intricate as the highways and byways of the country 
towns of New England. There are numerous lakes, larger 
than Winnipisaukee or Champlain, or those of Central 
New York, navigable for steamers as capacious as those 
which ply on the Ohio Eiver. 

Fishermen are watching their nets along the banks. 
They do not like the steamers of the foreigners, for they 
believe that the fish are frightened from their old haunts 
by the plashing of the paddles. 

We meet the Plymouth Eock, bound for Shanghae, 
loaded to the water's edge with twenty thousand, chests 



UP THE YANGTSE. 365 

of tea ; but there is little to attract attention till we are 
seventy-five miles on our way. The first place of any 
importance is Kiang Yang, a large walled town, pictu- 
resque with its ancient fortifications, temples, and a 
seven-storied pagoda, that was reared centuries ago. 
Shrubs and grasses are growing in the crevices of the 
crumbling stone. The city lies along the river-bank, 
with suburbs extending to a range of green hills in the 
distance. The whitewashed cottages and temples, the 
yellow flags floating from tall staffs Illuminated with 
dragons, the inlets and creeks filled with junks and 
smaller boats, with blue mountains far away in the 
north, make up the strange but pleasing picture. 

Farther on we behold a range of mountains looming in 
the south, but lowering to cliffs along the river. On 
their summits are tall pagodas, that were reared by 
wealthy men of ancient times as holy places, or as 
memorials of their benevolence. 

Eounding a bluff, we sweep on toward the southwest, 
passing towns where crowds of people in blue blouses 
and broad-brimmed hats stare at us from the doors of 
their houses and the decks of their junks. There are 
no mansions and church edifices, — ■ features such as lend 
a charm to an American or European landscape, — but 
small houses with tiled roofs, standing on narrow, dirty 
streets. 

The broad plains and verdant meadows, the fields, 
hedgerows, clustered trees, cottages half hid beneath the 
foliage, blue smoke curling upward, people in the fields, 
present a picturesque scene ; but in China, as well as in 
other lands, " distance lends enchantment to the view." 

"We have already learned that poverty and degradation 
is the lot of a large portion of the Chinese. 

The first stopping-place for our steamer is at Ching 
Kiang, a large walled town on the southern bank. Below 



366 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

it is the rock Ts'ioo, which rises abruptly four hundred 
feet above the stream. Its sides are clothed with foliage, 
and its summit crowned with Buddhist temples. 

The city of Ching Kiang occupies an important point on 
the river. Its name signifies " Eiver Guard," and it com- 
mands the Yangtse and the grand canal. 

About one hundred miles south of Shanghae is the 
great city of Hang-chow, on a large stream which comes 
down from the hills of the eastern provinces. At that 
city the canal commences. It runs across the meadows 
in a northwesterly direction to Soochow, a city about 
seventy miles west of. Shanghae, and thence to this city, 
connecting with the Yangtse. 

There are no obstacles north of the river, and so the 
imperial water-way — this noble work of the ancients 
— reaches a hundred miles farther to the Hoang-ho or 
Yellow Eiver, and thence continues to Pekin. We 
have said that it goes to the Yellow Eiver, but it is a 
statement which needs to be explained. The Hoang-ho 
is a capricious stream. Formerly it emptied into the 
Yellow Sea, but recent explorations show that by far 
the largest volume of water runs north into the G-ulf of 
Pecheli. This statement is confirmed by Eev. Dr. Martin, 
now at the head of the Pekin University, who has trav- 
elled extensively over Northern China. 

We might step on board one of these river boats, 
spread the lateen-sails, turn up the canal, at the north- 
ern bend of the Yangtse, and come out at Pekin, or at 
any one of the fifty outlets along the coast, or, gaining 
the main channel of the Yellow Eiver, work our way 
one thousand miles due west from the sea, then, turning 
north four hundred miles, pass the great wall, enter Mon- 
golia, sail three or four hundred miles in that country, 
re-enter China, and traverse the northwest provinces of 
the empire. 



UP THE YANGTSE. 367 

As yet nothing is known as to the practicability of 
navigating these northern streams by steam, but here are 
junks loaded with salt for the Manchus of Tartary, also 
boats bound for Pekin. During the war between the 
Allies and China the city of Ching Kiang was taken by 
the naval forces, and the whole northern provinces felt 
the blow at Once, for it stopped all trade between the 
north and south. 

It was this which probably did more than anything 
else towards bringing the Chinese government to accept 
the terms of the English. 

The town of Kwa-chow, on the northern bank opposite 
Ching Kiang, is a great salt port. Foreign vessels are not 
allowed to transport the article, and the trade is wholly 
in the hands of the government, which derives a large 
revenue from the custom receipts. The salt trade at this 
port gives employment to eighteen hundred junks, manned 
by thirty thousand sailors. 

A portion of the people are averse to any further 
opening of the interior waters to foreign steamers, which 
are prohibited from towing native boats. When the 
current is strong it takes a junk six weeks to run from 
this point to Hankow, a distance of four hundred and 
fifty miles, though it is easily accomplished by steamer 
in two days. The complaint is that the introduction of 
American boats has already deprived twenty-five thou- 
sand men of employment. Notwithstanding this hostility, 
the native merchants and speculators always travel by 
steamer. The Kiang Loon is crowded with them. 

The crop of tea for the year is just coming to market, 
and the dealers are as lively as any class of merchants in 
America. They have an immense amount of treasure on 
board, — Spanish dollars and Sycee silver ingots, in the 
shape of a woman's shoe, besides about seventy tons pf 
copper cash ! 



368 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Bills of exchange are coming into use among the lead- 
ing traders of the seaboard cities, but those in the interior 
prefer specie. 

When Ching Kiang was made a trading port, it was 
supposed it would be one of the most important on the 
river, but the expectations have not been realized ; other 
ports higher up are better commercial points. 

We meet large rafts of timber, with houses upon them, 
which have floated two thousand miles from the western 
provinces. The raftsmen, till reaching Hankow, never 
saw a steamboat, and they gaze in wonder at a vessel roll- 
ing on wheels up stream twelve miles an hour ! They 
will have marvellous stories to tell when they get back to 
their far-distant homes. 

Nankin, or the " Southern Capital," as its name implies, 
was the capital of the empire till the Manchu dynasty, 
in the fifteenth century, came into power, when the seat 
of government was transferred to Pekin. It was once a 
great city, adorned with imperial palaces, famous for its 
porcelain tower, a picture of which was to be found in 
all school geographies in our boyhood days, which, with 
the great wall, a mandarin carried in his sedan, and a 
cooly with rats and puppies for pies, made up the sum 
total of our ideas about China. But the pagoda has dis- 
appeared, and Nankin is an insignificant place in com- 
parison with its former greatness. In March, 1853, the 
rebels captured the town, and held it till July, 1864. 

It is one hundred and ninety-four miles west of Shang- 
hae, on the south bank of the river. The walls are about 
thirty feet thick at the base, and varying in height from 
fifty to sixty feet. They enclose an area of twenty-five 
square miles. The population, previous to the rebellion, 
was estimated at about two millions. The famous pagoda 
stood without the walls on the southwest side of the city. 
It was destroyed by the rebels. 




THE PORCELAIN TOWER. 



UP THE YAJSIGTSE. 369 

Not only in Nankin, but along the river, there are ruins. 
Eesidents here say that the destruction of life during 
the war may be estimated at twenty-five millions ! The 
struggle commenced in the southwest province of Yu- 
nan, on the borders of Burmah. It spread to Canton. It 
rolled down the valley of the Yangtse to Shanghae, and 
down the Yellow Biver to Bekin. Every one of the 
great cities of the interior fell into the hands of the 
insurgents. They took possession of town and country. 
It was a struggle in which no quarter was shown by 
either party. 

The rebels consumed all that came in their way, and 
desolation marked their progress. Disease and famine fol- 
lowed them. It was a contest which lasted nearly twenty 
years. Captain Friend, of this steamer, saw the final 
victorious attack of the imperial troops upon the rebels 
at this city, the cutting off of heads on the shore, the 
sinking of thousands in the river as they attempted to 
escape. There was no mercy shown. The imperial troops 
were animated by one desire only, — to kill. It was a 
terrible harvest which was reaped on these meadows 
during those years. 

Nankin is not a port open to foreign trade, and we 
steam past it, stopping the wheels a moment to drop a 
Chinese passenger into a boat which puts out from the 
shore for that purpose. The tombs of the Ming dynasty 
are near here. They were damaged by the rebels, and 
are now hardly worth a visit. 

About four hundred miles from Shanghae we leave the 
dead level of the meadows and approach an elevated 
region, a range of hills and mountains, which have a 
general direction from the northwest to the southeast. 
We look upon landscapes of surpassing beauty, — hills, 
green slopes, brown rocks, and secluded glens. The 
cliffs are like those of Cumberland in old England, and 
16* ' x 



370 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



as green as the hills of Vermont, 
of Coleridge : — ■ 



We recall the words 



" A green and silent spot amid the hills, 
Small and silent dells ! O'er stiller place 
No singing skylark ever poised himself." 

We pass a remarkable rock, which rises four hundred 
feet above the stream. Its eastern wall is perpendicular, 

and so smooth 




sparrow 
scarcely 
resting- 



that a 
could 
find a 

place. The west- 
ern side is not 
quite so steep. 
The Buddhist 
monks have built 
their huts, like 
dove-boxes, on a 
shelf half-way up 
the height, and 
erected a joss- 
house upon the 
summit. Shrubs 
and small trees 
spring from the 
crevices of the 
rocks. The island 
bears the name 
of "The Little 
Orphan." 
Looking across a green fringe of meadow southward, 

we behold a beautiful sheet of water, the Poyang Lake. 

The surrounding mountains are mirrored in its waters. 

Numerous sails are flitting along its pebbly shores. 

Were we to embark in a small junk, we might sail up 



LITTLE ORPHAN ISLAND. 



UP THE YANGTSE. 371 

the river which enters it from the south, and thus make 
our way by water half the distance to Canton. 

As we pass the outlet of the lake, we have a view of 
the calm waters reposing beneath a cloudless sky, reflect- 
ing the beauties of the surrounding scenery. A fortress 
commands the narrow passage between the Yangtse and 
this Champlain of China, and a temple dedicated to the 
o-od of war rears its white walls on the brow of the hill 
above the fortification. The priests have given their 
leisure time, of which they have a great deal, to the 
cultivation of vegetables and flowers in the gardens at- 
tached to their place of worship. In the small ponds 
near by they propagate fish, which find a ready market 
at Kiu-kiang. 

The lake is about fifty miles long and fifteen wide. 
It is clotted with islands, green and sunny, and beautiful 
with vegetation peculiar to the clime. On this sweet 
summer day, under a softened light, the view is as 
charming as any beneath Italian skies. 

A large amount of green tea is produced in this district. 
These junks which we see whitening the lake, motionless 
upon the calm waters, — 

" As idle as a painted ship 
Upon a painted ocean," — 

are doubtless loaded with tea for the Kiu-kiang market. 

The city, in its general appearance, is much like those 
already visited, — houses and shops of one story, with 
the usual accompaniment of dirt and unsavory smells, 
sickening to us, but as refreshing to Chinese olfactories, 
perhaps, as rosemary or verbena to ours. In the market, 
as at Canton, are tubs containing young eels, coops filled 
with fowls, cages crowded with dogs, which set up a 
furious barking as we approach. We can bear it with 
the philosophy of a stoic, knowing that the curs will 
soon be at their last bark, and that the stew-pan is their 
destiny. 



372 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

A large area inside the walls is covered with ruins, — 
heaps of brick and broken tiles, — the relics of the re- 
bellion. Escaping from the crowd of boys following us 
to get a look at the foreigners, we stroll through the sub- 
urbs, and reach the grounds belonging to the Roman 
Catholics, who have a church, convent, and other build- 
ings. French priests, wearing the costumes of the Chinese, 
adapting themselves to the habits and customs of those 
whom they are seeking to convert, are moving about the 
premises, superintending workmen who are hammering 
stone for a new edifice. They have selected an excellent 
location, not only with reference to the city, but the sur- 
rounding country as well ; not only for present, but for 
future operations. 

In coming years the thunder of the locomotive will be 
heard along this valley, connecting the southern sea-coast 
with the central cities of the empire. The chief afflu- 
ents of the Yangtse are the Han, Ming, and Lung on the 
north, and the Kiang on the south, and they are the 
avenues by which Western civilization will make its 
way to the millions of people in the interior. As a 
great continental thoroughfare, the Yangtse is not sur- 
passed by any river on the face of the globe, the Mis- 
sissippi not excepted. The tide of trade and travel sets 
directly across the Mississippi, from east to west. The 
commerce of the world is in the same direction. This 
mighty stream runs in the direction of the universal trade 
line. It is in the great commercial zone that belts the 
earth. These junks, freighted with tea, coming down the 
Poyang Lake one after another like a covey of ducks, will 
discharge their cargo into the river steamers, which in turn 
will transport it to Shanghae, and thence by sailing vessel 
or ocean steamship it will be taken along the same lines 
of latitude to San Francisco, and, if land carriage can be 
made cheap enough, to Chicago and New York. 



UP THE YANGTSE. 373 

As yet modern civilization lias barely obtained a foot- 
hold in this portion of the empire. Five ports are opened 
to trade, and permission is given to go up to Hankow 
with steamers. Missionaries may travel where they 
please, for they are looked upon as inoffensive persons. 
The Chinese government has been wise enough to take 
foreigners into its customs service, and to encourage 
natives to acquire foreign languages. It has further 
exhibited its wisdom by appointing Mr., Burlingame an 
envoy to Western nations. 

We are gliding toward the heart of the empire, in a 
steamer built on the Hudson, propelled by an engine 
from the hands of New York machinists. Our captain 
is a clear-headed Yankee from Cape Ann. We are 
brought face to face with questions of the future. What 
part is America to play on this continent ? San Fran- 
cisco is only twenty-six days distant. The Pacific Rail- 
road is opened and New York is but one month from 
Shanghae. What is to be the measure of the influence 
Of American ideas - — political, social, moral, and religious 
— in this land ? More important, — what influence is 
China to have upon America ? Sixty to eighty thousand 
Chinamen already are in California and Oregon, and one 
thousand Americans, perhaps, in all China. The steamers 
of" the Pacific mail are crowded with Chinamen. Every 
sailing ship bound to San Francisco carries a full com- 
plement of emigrants. America has thirty-five million 
inhabitants, China four hundred millions. Here, every 
inch of land is occupied ; there, millions of acres are 
waiting the coming of the cultivator. 

There are merchants in China as rich as the wealthiest 
men' of the United States. The West is yet tributary to 
the East. China compels us to bring our silver to her 
coffers. She is powerful enough to keep the balance of 
trade against us. 



374 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Is there vitality enough in our country to affect this 
inert mass ? Is there not reason to fear that the emigra- 
tion of Chinamen to America will serve as a drag upon 
our own progress ? Is there power enough in the great 
democratic mill to grind up the odds and ends of all 
lands, — to reduce Ireland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, 
Denmark, England, Scotland, Italy, Africa, Mexico, and 
China to common pulp ? These are grave questions for 
the consideration of the people of the United States. 



CHAPTEE XLVII. 

CENTRAL CHINA. 

AT Whang-choo, a city on the northern bank, with 
beautiful green hills behind it, we have an oppor- 
tunity of seeing a Chinese military encampment, which 
is surrounded by a low earthwork as a protection against 
surprise from the prowling banditti, which still infest the 
northern provinces. 

Although the rebellion is subdued, the rebels are not 
all exterminated. They gather in bands, make a sudden 
raid upon a village or town, but disperse upon the ap- 
proach of the slow -moving troops. Many of the plun- 
derers, quite likely, are soldiers discharged from the army. 
When their term of service expires they are sent adrift 
without means of returning to their distant homes, and it 
is one of the most natural things in the world that they 
should become plunderers. The Pekin government is 
too inert to put down the pillaging of these predatory 
bands. If caught, their heads are cut off ; but they are 
seldom captured. They are the Klu Klux of China. 



CENTRAL CHINA. 375 

The inhabitants fear and tolerate them just as the people 
of Tennessee and Texas bear with the murderous gangs 
infesting those States. 

These soldiers who stand upon the bank of the river 
gazing at us, judging from their appearance, are the rag- 
amuffins of the land. They wear round straw hats, 
shaped like the tin colanders which are hanging up w 
every American kitchen. 

There is little uniformity of dress, but each soldier 
wears his "chop" — the number of his regiment — on his 
breast and back. Viewing them from front or rear, we see 
a full-orbed moon about a foot in diameter, set off with 
red lettering like that upon chests of tea, as if each 
soldier was a bundle of merchandise, packed, labelled, 
and ready for market. 

Over the encampment wave several thousand red and 
white flags. That which waves over the tent of the 
general-in-chief is large enough for the mainsail of a 
man-of-war, with a white ground, dark border, and Chi- 
nese characters in the centre in black. There are so 
many flags that the hillside has the appearance of a 
flower-garden blooming with roses, hollyhocks, poppies, 
bachelors' -buttons, and marigolds. The Chinese can do 
a vast deal of fighting with flags, gongs, and lanterns ! 

We are informed that when the English attacked one 
of their towns, during the late war, the besieged hung 
several thousand lanterns on the walls at night, and kept 
up a tremendous beating of gongs, to let the foreign 
devils know they were wide awake and prepared for an 
attack ! 

The city of Hankow is situated at the mouth of the 
Han, one of the largest tributaries of the Yangtse, which 
has its source among the highlands in the North Central 
Provinces. At this junction of the two streams are three 
populous towns, — Hankow and Hanyan on the northern 



376 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

bank, divided by the Han ; and on the south bank Wu- 
chang, one of the chief literary cities of the empire. 

The three places are considered as one under the name 
of Hankow by foreigners, just as Brooklyn and Jersey 
City might be looked upon by strangers as parts of 
New York. The population probably is nearly equal 
to that of those three cities. The lowest estimate places 
it at more than one million. 

The course of the Yangtse is southwest, and as we ap- 
proach the city the foreign settlement is seen at our right 
hand. The residences of the merchants are spacious and 
lofty, with green blinds and wide verandas, fronting a 
grand esplanade along the river-bank, which is set out 
with shade-trees and adorned with flowers. 

How striking the contrast between these buildings and 
the low, narrow, mean, unfloored houses and shops of the 
Chinese quarter a little farther up stream ! Wherever we 
turn our eyes we see the old civilization confronted by 
the new, — and there is a difference between them of 
three thousand years. 

The river here is a mile in width. It is now rapidly 
rising, and in a few w T eeks the surrounding country will 
be under water. Last year the whole city was inundated. 
In the European quarter the people lived in the second 
story of their houses, and navigated the streets in boats. 
In the native section everybody took to junks and sam- 
pans, having three weeks of boat life. On both sides 
of the river there are large shallow lakes or lagoons, 
reaching miles away, so that at this season of the year 
Hankow bears some resemblance to Venice. The dif- 
ference between the winter and summer level of the 
river at this point is from fifty to sixty feet, which has 
involved an immense outlay of money on the part of 
foreign residents to obtain wharfage. One can hardly 
realize that in 1861 the first foreigner settled here, and 



CENTRAL CHINA. 377 

that all the noble edifices, the promenades, the ware- 
houses, the embankment along the river, the wall in real 
of the city, have been built since then. Looking at 
what has been done here, and at Kiu-kiang, Shanghae, 
Mngpoo, Eoochow, Hong Kong, and other river and sea- 
coast towns, taking into consideration what has been ac- 
complished at Pekin, — the establishing of a college, the 
regulation of customs, and the general policy of govern- 
ment, — it is not extravagant to say that £here has been 
as much progress during the last seven years as for fif- 
teen hundred years previous. 

The foreigners here, at the close of 1861, numbered 
about forty ; in 1863 they had increased to one hundred 
and fifty, but depression of business and overtrading has 
reduced them to about one hundred. These English, 
Americans, and Germans have an excellent club-room, 
library, and athenseuni, well supplied with papers and 
magazines ; a volunteer fire brigade and rifle corps, boat- 
club, ice-club, for the cutting and storing of ice in winter 
for their own consumption, a race-course, cricket-ground, 
livery-stable, and newspaper ! So Western civilization 
plants itself in the heart of China. The climate in sum- 
mer is hot and dry, and far healthier than at Shanghae. 
While it has these advantages, it is not pleasant, on the 
other hand, to be compelled to navigate a sampan through 
parlors and bedrooms for one month during the year. 

Accompanied by an English gentleman connected with 
one of the mercantile firms, and crossing the river, we 
enter the suburbs of Wu-chang. Our path leads through 
vegetable and flower gardens, where cabbages, beans, 
garlics, onions, celery, cucumbers, and other plants are 
in vigorous growth. The gardens are not laid out with 
much regularity ; nor are they kept free from weeds. 
We doubt if any people in the world can surpass the 
Chinese in forcing successive crops from the same piece 



378 OUR NEW WAY EOUND THE WORLD. 

of ground. All fertilizers are applied in liquid form. 
In every garden there are tanks filled with liquid 
waste, which coolies are bringing from the city in open 
buckets. Other laborers are applying it to the growing 
crops. A walk of nearly two miles through the main 
street brings us to the house of Bishop Williams. We 
had the pleasure of meeting him in London, in 1867, 
while the Pan-Anglican Assembly of Bishops and Pre- 
lates of the Episcopal Churches was in session. He 
formerly resided in Japan, and has but recently removed 
to this city. It was with difficulty that he could obtain 
a house in Wu-chang. Being a literary city, where 
students from all the central provinces of the empire 
assemble, the predominating influence has been against 
foreigners. In past times visitors have been jostled in 
the streets, and householders are afraid to let their prem- 
ises. 

We find the bishop sick in bed, attended by a Chi- 
nese servant. If any one is under the impression that 
missionaries live in grand style, surrounded with all 
the comforts and luxuries of life, we think they would 
take a different view after seeing his premises. The 
house is on a narrow street, where sickening odors per- 
vade the air. We enter the front hall, which is but a 
shed, pass through a court and a succession of rooms with 
stone floors, bare brick walls, windows with oiled paper 
instead of panes of glass, and find the bishop in his bed- 
room. It is scantily furnished, — two or three chairs, 
a table, his narrow bed, no carpet, no pictures, a room 
almost as cheerless as the cell of a monastery. It is not 
that the bishop is an ascetic, but this is the best he can 
do. He has selected this place as a favorable position, 
and will soon be joined by other missionaries. 

Ascending an elevation in the centre of the city, a wide 
panorama is spread before us, — the river with countless 



CENTRAL CHINA. 379 

junks and sampans ; the three cities ; the suburbs, vil- 
lages, fields, gardens ; here and there a pagoda rear- 
ing its gray walls, and multitudes of people in the streets. 
At our feet is the palace, or yamun, of the governor-gen- 
eral of the two central provinces, a mandarin of three 
buttons, and ruler of from sixty to seventy millions of 
people. The entrance to the palace is marked by two tall 
flag-staffs, from which immense banners float in the breeze. 
Upon the brick wall of the outer court we see the repre- 
sentation of a fiery dragon, of proportions more astound- 
ing than the megatherium or ichthyosaurus, teeth longer 
and sharper than a crocodile's, claws more terrible than 
those of a lion, with scales like a fish, a tail like a ser- 
pent's, eyes more fiery than any hobgoblin's, and flames 
darting like lightning from his nostrils. Pendent from 
the eaves of the palace are paper lanterns, each the size 
of a hogshead. Squads of soldiers, as dirty as the coolies 
of the streets, are lounging around the doors, playing 
cards. Upon the walls are paintings by Chinese artists, 
distinguished for gay colors, and an utter absence of per- 
spective. Such the outside appearance. There may be 
luxurious apartments within, but probably throughout 
the palace there is nothing which would be called com- 
fortable by Americans. 

Passing a building, we hear the voices of children, and 
looking through the open door see a room crowded with 
urchins, with shaven brows and small pigtails. They 
are studying aloud at small tables. The master sits 
or half reclines on a bamboo couch. He can hardly be 
called a master, for the boys do pretty much as they 
please ; neither can he be called a teacher, for he does 
not profess to teach them : he only hears the recitation. 
These pupils know nothing of geography or arithmetic, 
for Chinese education does not embrace that which we 
esteem fundamental. 



380 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

These pamphlets which they hold in their hands con- 
tain extracts from the writings of Confucius and Mencius 
on morals and political economy. When the lesson is 
committed to memory, they turn their backs to the mas- 
ter and recite it, screaming at the top of their voices. 
The pupils do not comprehend what they are reciting any 
more than an American child that has just learned to 
talk understands the Catechism. 

The Chinese consider the writings of Confucius as the 
foundation of all wisdom. Whatever is learned from 
him is good. The scholar will understand it in after 
life. A corresponding method of education in the United 
States would be to throw aside all text-books, — readers, 
geographies, grammars, histories, and arithmetics, — and 
study the ceremonial law, the sayings of Solomon, or the 
chapters of hard names from Chronicles ! 

Writing is taught, and by long practice the boys become 
experts. 

There are numerous primary schools, supported by 
parents or public-spirited men. Girls are not often edu- 
cated. Woman is of little more account here than in 
India. She does not need an education. It is beyond 
her sphere. The question as to what her sphere may be 
has not yet been agitated. When it is settled in our own 
land, there will be a wide field in China for philanthropic 
effort. 

Wandering through these streets, on this sultry day, 
when the doors of the houses are wide open to admit 
fresh air, we have an opportunity of seeing the women in 
their homes. By far the largest portion of them toil from 
morning till night. But in a great literary city there are 
people of wealth and refinement. Some of the women 
of the higher classes would be called good-looking in 
Western lands. The accompanying illustration, from a 
photograph, that has been faithfully reproduced for this 



CENTRAL CHINA. 



381 




ONE OF THE UPPER CLASS. 



volume by the artist, will enable the reader to form a 
better conception of the personal appearance and style 
of dress than pages 
of description. It 
will be seen that 
the hair is worn 
low in the neck, 
which is the pre- 
vailing fashion in 
some provinces at 
the present time. 
An old salt un- 
doubtedly would 
call it the " sou'- 
wester style." 

The women of 
China are far above 
those of other East- 
ern nations. The wife of an Arab or a Hindoo is a slave, 
— a drawer of water and hewer of wood. Here they 
sometimes work in the fields, but their proper sphere is in 
the house attending to domestic duties. Wives seldom 
go upon the street with their husbands. Sometimes they 
may be seen together at a picnic, or at the graves of their 
ancestors, but they do not lock arms or walk in company. 
The husband will be a few rods in advance or in rear 
of the wife. 

The women are capable of strong affection, and we are 
assured by missionaries that they are faithful in keeping 
the marriage vow. There are those who lead dissolute 
lives ; but they, as a class, are as susceptible of the claims 
of virtue as those of more enlightened lands. Give them 
an education, and they will honor their sex. 

Eeflecting upon their present condition, and what 
capabilities are before them, the Eden of the future 



382 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

seems far distant. Social customs and religious belief are 
against them. Their lot in life is hard, for superstition 
has taught them that they committed grievous sin in a 
former state of existence, and were created women in this 
as a penalty for the crime. They lead a life of degra- 
dation here, and will pass to another like it in the future 
life, if not circumspect in this. 

They are exhorted by the moral writers, and by their 
husbands, to lead virtuous lives, if they would not be 
women in the hereafter. One of the moralists, in a book 
upon the marriage relation, thus addresses the female 
sex: — 

" That you have not in this life been born a male is 
owing to your amount of wickedness in a previous state 
of existence ; you did not then desire to adorn virtue and 
perform good actions, so that now you have been hope- 
lessly born a poor female ; and if you do not now amend 
your faults, your wickedness will be greater, so that it is 
to be feared that, in the next existence, if you wish for a. 
male's body it will be difficult to obtain it." 

It is one of the glories of the Christian religion that 
it elevates woman, and one of the brightest features of 
the present time that men are coming into clearer per- 
ceptions of the claims of the female sex. The day can- 
not be far distant when the wave of progress will roll 
across the Pacific to the shores of this old land. Then 
the millions of women now degraded will rise to a higher 
plane of existence, and, with enlarged liberty, enlightened 
intellect, a clear vision, enjoy the benefits of modern 
civilization, and live in the peaceful light of the " Shining 
Cross." 



V. ,5, 




CHINESE MANDARIN AND WIFE. 



COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION. 383 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION. 

COMPETITIVE examination was established about 
the commencement of the Christian era. It is the 
foundation of the present political system of the empire. 
It is democratic in principle, and deserves the attention 
of statesmen the world over. Under it a person of the 
lowest condition may attain to the highest positions of 
honor. There are several classes who are excluded from 
entering the course of study, — play-actors, prostitutes, 
executioners, jailers, and inferior servants waiting upon 
mandarins. Their children to the third generation are 
also excluded. The theory adopted is that these persons 
and their immediate descendants are wanting in those 
moral qualifications which are necessary in the adminis- 
tration of government. Persons who have lost a parent 
cannot enter the course of study till after the expiration 
of three years, inasmuch as hard study is inconsistent 
with due respect for the dead during that period of 
time. 

In the United States official positions are obtained 
through personal favor, or on political considerations. 
Beer and whiskey have influence. Brothers, cousins, 
friends, are appointed to office by those who have the 
dispensing of patronage. Party service demands pay. 
Merit and clarification are too often the least of con- 
siderations. 

Not so in China. The theory of the system there is, 
that all civil officers must be literary graduates. Three 
degrees have been established. The first may be obtained 



384 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

in the Hien, or district college ; the second in the Fu, or 
provincial college ; the third in the Imperial University 
at Pekin. 

The city of Wu-chang being a provincial capital at 
the centre of the empire, and easily accessible, has be- 
come one of the chief literary centres. In this respect 
we may think of it as ranking with Cambridge or Oxford 
in England, Harvard or Yale or Ann Arbor in the United 
States. 

The student having been through the district college, 
and obtaining a degree from the Chancellor, comes to 
Wu-chang to enter the higher courses. Each student 
is required, before leaving home, to file a paper with the 
local magistrate containing the name of his father, grand- 
father, teacher, and next-door neighbor, stating also his 
own age, height, and complexion. The names of several 
literary graduates are necessary as indorsers for his good 
character, and one of these must be present when he 
enters the University. 

Passing down one of the streets we reach the Univer- 
sity buildings, occupying a large area enclosed by a wall 
about twenty feet high, covered completely over with 
placards displaying the names of the successful candi- 
dates for honors at the last examination. Entering the 
enclosure, we find a paved court containing long ranges 
of sheds, with tiled roofs, beneath which are about ten 
thousand small cell-like apartments or alcoves, three or 
four feet square, open in front, with a seat, and a board 
which can be placed against the wall, on supports, for 
a table. These are the students' quarters, which they 
occupy during examination. 

A Chinese university does not have recitation-hall or 
dormitory. It is not a place at which students spend four 
years in study, but simply a barrack where they con- 
gregate for a few days, — a prison rather, for while here 



COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION. 385 

they are shut in and are not allowed any communication 
with, their friends. 

In the centre of the area stands the " Temple of Perfect 
Justice," a building erected for the convenience of the 
examiners, and imperial commissioners, who are sent 
from Pekin to decide upon the literary merits of the 
students, and are sworn to render an impartial verdict. 
Spacious apartments are assigned them, for they are 
accompanied by a large retinue of servants. 

The students who come to this city have taken their 
first degree in the district college. It is not Master 
or Bachelor of Arts, but the degree of " Beautiful Abil- 
ity," which means quite as much in China as that of 
A. B. in the United States, and without it no student 
can compete for higher honors. 

The examinations are held triennially, and there are 
never less than ten or twelve thousand competitors. 

These are great occasions. People from the surrounding 
country come in to see the honors conferred. Friends 
are here to witness the triumph of those most dear. The 
city is filled with strangers. It is a grand harvest-time 
for hotel and shop keepers. Excitement is at fever heat. 
The student who wins brings honor, not only to himself, 
but to his friends. He is on the road to fortune, for 
if he passes examination, official position awaits him. 
Wealth is sure ; privilege is one of the results, — graduates, 
like members of Congress, being exempt from arrest, ex- 
cept for crime. High station in life, favor of the em- 
peror, everything worth living for as viewed from the 
Chinese stand-point, is involved in the effort. 

Students bring bedding and food, as they are required 
to stay on the premises several days ; servants and friends 
accompany them to the gate, which is guarded by sol- 
diers, who allow none but scholars to enter. When all 
are in, the gate is shut and sealed, and the troops pre- 

17 x 



386 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

vent all outsiders from approaching the wall. The stu- 
dents are allowed no books, but are supplied with paper, 
pen, and ink. The commissioners announce themes from 
the " Four Books " of the ancient classics, upon which 
they are to write three essays and one poem. 

As soon as the subjects are given out, all hands apply 
themselves to composition. They have no aid, can con- 
sult no one, but must rely wholly on themselves. Their 
compositions, when finished, are handed to one class of 
examiners, whose business is to see that there are no 
great defects, and that the rules have been complied 
with. If they pass this ordeal they are copied, so that 
the judges may not show favoritism by any previous 
knowledge of the handwriting of the candidates. 

A jury of literary men read the essays, which if they 
reach a certain degree of excellence, receive a red mark 
of approval, and are passed on to the chief examiners. 
All others are rejected. 

The standard adopted by the final judges must be very 
high or the scholarship exceedingly low, for not more 
than one hundred out of the ten or twelve thousand 
obtain the second degree of "Advanced Men," — a pro- 
saic title in comparison with " Beautiful Ability " 

Great ovations await those who win these high honors. 
The best orchestras of the empire are here with fiddles, 
flageolets, cymbals, gongs, and drums ; cannon are fired, 
bonfires kindled, lanterns lighted, processions formed, 
feasts prepared, songs sung, and the whole city joins in 
the grand jubilee. 

Messengers convey the tidings to all the surrounding 
country. This is an election, and as exciting as a polit- 
ical contest in America. Each district is interested in 
the success of its candidates, and so drums beat and 
bonfires blaze over the entire province. 

The name of the student who takes the first honor is 



COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION. 387 

placed highest on the wall, where it may be seen by the 
excited multitude. 

The successful competitors, if they aspire to the third 
degree, have an allowance from the imperial treasury to 
enable them to go to Pekin, where they pass a similar 
examination in the highest literary halls. If successful 
there, they receive the degree of Doctor of Laws, and are 
prepared to occupy high official stations. 

A large number of students reside here. Many who 
failed this year will apply themselves for three years, and 
then try again. Old men are among the competitors, who 
have been studying for a half-century without success. 
Men eighty years of age have died during the trial, 
through excitement, while in pursuit of literary fame, 
and the distinction and privileges which lie behind it. 

The democratic principle in this political system is 
remarkable, and the theory of competitive examinations 
must commend itself to all who believe in a democratic 
form of government. It has lasted nearly two thousand 
years, and there must be an element of stability in a 
system which continues that period of time. 

The effect upon the community is apparent. In no 
country is literature held in higher estimation. Wher- 
ever we go we see bookstores. Printing-offices are nu- 
merous, — shops where men sit at small tables with blocks 
on which the " word characters " are engraved. 

It is a reading community. The preparation for exam- 
ination familiarizes a large number of men with history, 
political economy, and general literature. To be sure, it 
is the history of China, and not of other nations ; but we 
are not to forget that the authentic history of this people 
reaches back to the time of Moses, that the "Book of 
Classics " is as old as the Pentateuch, and the chief 
text-book of political wisdom written by Confucius as 
ancient as the prophecy of Isaiah. 



388 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Literary and political aspirations fill the students, — the 
desire for fame combined with the hankering for office. 

But notwithstanding all this, the method of choosing 
political and military officers by competitive examination 
gives a powerful stimulus to literary pursuits. Every 
village has its schools, and ambitious young men, seeing 
the possibility of attaining positions of honor, eagerly 
engage in study. Poor people deny themselves comforts 
that they may educate their sons. Brothers in a family 
unite to help on one of their number, that all may obtain 
honor. Virtue in this respect is found in China as well 
as in our own land. 

Unfortunately, the profound reverence paid to the Chi- 
nese classics robs the system of some of its excellence. 
It is now conducted as if we were to choose our officials 
on their ability to write an essay from a text in the Book 
of Genesis, or a poem from a passage in the Song of Solo- 
mon. It is an open question whether that would not 
be quite as sensible a proceeding as to elect one who has 
just taken out naturalization papers, and whose only 
recommendation is that he keeps a liquor-shop, and can 
influence voters by supplying them with whiskey ! 

Lop off the defects of the Chinese system, adopt its 
excellences, modify some of its parts, and we shall have 
the true democratic system for official service. We com- 
mend it to the attention of. the people of the United 
States. 

The students leave their studies to see the foreigners, 
and we soon have a crowd at our heels. That there is 
something very funny in our appearance is manifest. 
The wits of the college are saying their smart things, the 
wags getting off their best jokes. The play-grounds of 
Yale or Harvard never resounded with heartier laughter, 
and there never was a more jolly crowd on the play- 
ground of Dartmouth than that around us. Some walk 



COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION. 389 

in front of us to take a look at our faces, while others 
make remarks behind our backs. The cut of our coat is 
outlandish, no doubt. Our hats are queer. We are fit 
subjects for caricature. 

They are ready for a lark, and the older ones push the 
younger against us. We have seen school-boys at home 
play similar pranks. But the fun has been carried far 
enough. It is annoying. We stop, look steadily at them 
a moment. It will not do to be demonstrative ; such a 
course will bring a shower of stones, and we shall have 
the worst of it in a fight. Cool nerves, and a control 
of the muscles, are far better than shaking of fists, loud 
words, or energetic action when surrounded by such a 
crowd. 

They stop their jests, become respectful, and allow us to 
go our way without further molestation. Children follow 
us, dogs bark, people rush out of their shops to see us, but 
no indignity is offered, and we roam at will through the 
town. The inhabitants are largely engaged in the manu- 
facture of chop-sticks, cords of which are piled in the 
shops, the common ones of bamboo, those used by the 
middle classes of ebony. The wealthy citizens use ivory, 
which comes mainly from Siberia, brought overland from 
Kiactka. They are manufactured from bones and tusks 
of fossil mammoths, which lived when the Arctic region 
had a tropical clime. Far up towards the north pole, in 
the frozen ocean, is the Isle of Bones, which abounds with 
fossil ivory. 

"The Isle of Bones," says Figuier, "has served as a 
quarry of this valuable material for export to China for 
five hundred years, and it has been exported to Europe for 
more than one hundred, but the supply from these strange 
mines is undiminished." * 

Ten thousand years ago, according to geologists, the 

* The "World before the Deluge, p. 341. 



390 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

elephants and mammoths of that region became extinct. 
But their tusks are here, and the Chinese workmen are 
sawing them up for the benefit of the mandarins and the 
fair ladies of this thickly peopled empire. 

Large quantities of chop-sticks are sent out from this 
city up the Yangtse to Upper China, down the stream to 
Shanghae, from thence to California or the Sandwich 
Islands, Australia, or wherever the Chinese emigrant may 
be found. 

Eeturning to Hankow, we find an invitation awaiting 
us from the governor of the district, to visit him at his 
palace. He has learned through the consul, Mr. Salter, 
that an American journalist is in the city, and has sent 
us his card, — a piece of red paper about a foot long and 
eight or ten inches wide, — accompanying which is the 
letter of invitation, abounding in flowery language, and 
containing the following sentence : — 

" A literary man travelling that he may write with 
spirit makes me think that we are all of one family. 
I shall wait the arrival of the worthy gentleman with 
clean-swept floors ! " 

We go in state, accompanied by the consul and the 
interpreter, Mr. Jenkins. Our sedan-bearers are in livery. 
The people rush from their houses into the street, to see 
the grand procession of sedans containing the foreigners, 
on their way to the palace of the highest official of the 
district. If the Chinese embassy made a sensation in 
this country, so do we create one on a small scale in the 
heart of China. 

A crowd attend us to the outer court of the yamun, 
where we are received by a guard of soldiers. The great 
doors are flung wide open, and we descend from our 
sedans in the inner court, surrounded by pictures of drag- 
ons and warriors with drawn swords. 

Passing through a doorway, we find ourselves face to 



COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION. 



391 



face with his Excellency, who, placing his fists together, 

shakes them at us. Remembering that, when we are in 

Borne, we are to do as the Eomans do, we shake ours at 

him. With many a 

shake, chin chin, 

and bow, we strive 

to outdo each other 

in politeness. If he 

bows low, we lower ; 

if he shakes gently, 

we vigorously. 

We sit down to a 
repast prepared and 
waiting for us at a 
small table. 

" How old are 
you ? " is his first 
question. 

This is etiquette, 
and has been since 
Joseph presented 
his father to Pha- 
raoh, yet the ques- 
tion might be em- 
barrassing to some 
of the gentle sex. 

We know that he is a grandfather by his mustache, 
but politeness requires us in turn to ask his age. He is 
sixty-seven. 

The first course of the repast is brought on, — roasted 
watermelon seeds ! The second is cherry cordial, of 
which he is exceedingly fond. Glass after glass is drained. 
He drinks our health, the health of the consul, and that 
of the interpreter. Food in various forms, minced, pre- 
pared with rice and sugar, is placed before us. 




CHIN CHI*. 



392 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



Being at the table of his Excellency, we eat what is set 
before us, asking no questions for the stomach's sake. 

Whether the animal which furnished the meat ever 
barked or mewed we do not care to know. Sweetmeats, 
cups of delicious tea, more cordials, end the repast. 

The governor has . many questions to ask in regard to 
^ the United States. 

He has read about 
the war, and wishes 
to know how we are 
getting on. He has 
read the letter re- 
cently written by 
Governor - General 
Tseng to the em- 
peror in regard to the 
proposed revision of 
the treaties between 
China and foreign 
nations, but, being a 
diplomat, expresses 
no opinion. 

He is a well-in- 
formed old gentle- 
man, with twinkling 
black eyes. He hopes 
that we like China, that we shall stay long. He is sorry 
to hear that we are to leave Hankow in the morning, as 
it will deprive him of the great pleasure which he has 
anticipated of returning our visit. 

We chin chin once more, shake our fists again, bow 
profoundly, and then his Excellency of the " clean-swept 
floors," to show his great respect for us, takes hold of our 
fists and shakes them for us. 

So we take our' departure, and return through the 
streets, followed by a wondering crowd. 




THE GOVERNOR. 



CULTIVATION OF TEA. 39< 



CHAPTEE XLIX. 

CULTIVATION OF TEA. 

THE position of Hankow being in the vicinity of the 
tea region, the facilities afforded for transportation 
has made it an important place for trade. About forty- 
million pounds of tea per annum are sent down the river 
from this place for export. 

Tea-drinking is so general among Americans that a 
brief description of the plant, its cultivation, and the prep- 
aration of the leaves for market, will be of interest. 

That cannot be accounted a small matter which affects, 
in any measure, the happiness of thirty million people 
three hundred and sixty-five times a year. So important 
is the beverage we obtain by decocting this herb, that it 
has become a universal synonyme for an entire repast. 

" Please take tea with us," is not simply an invitation 
to slake our thirst, but to partake in full measure of all 
the viands of the evening meal. 

The charming home picture so skilfully drawn by one 
•of England's sweetest poets when he wrote, 

" Now stir the fire and wheel the sofa round," 

would not have been perfect had he left out, 

" The bubbling and loud hissing urn, 
And cups that cheer, but not inebriate." 

The drooping watcher, the tired housekeeper, the brain- 
taxed editor, and the weary hod-carrier, all turn to tea for 
solace ; nor do they seek in vain. 

It is a disputed question whether there is any nutri- 
ment in tea, but experience goes to show that there is 

17* 



394 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

cheer at any rate, and if taken in moderation no evil 
results follow. 

Dr. Draper says of tea : " It is a mild stimulant to the 
skin and kidneys, prevents sleepiness, counteracts the 
effects of alcohol, and reduces the rate of waste of the 
tissues ; an action supposed to be due to the theine, or 
peculiar principle of the plant, the quantity of which 
is variously estimated from one half of one to four per 
cent." 

To an American tea has an interest aside from its 
social or stimulating or nutritive qualities, for indirectly 
it helped us gain our independence. 

" The tea perhaps was very good 
Bohea, Souschong, Young Hyson ; 
But drinking tea was not the rage, 
For duty made it pizen." 

Among the exciting causes that resulted in the war of 
the Eevolution, and independence of America, tea held a 
very prominent place. 

Events trivial in themselves sometimes exert a control- 
ling influence upon the destiny, not of individuals merely, 
but of cities and nations. If Rome was saved from sur- 
prise and capture by the clamoring of a goose, so the 
tax of threepence a pound upon tea had very much to 
do in sundering the American 'Colonies from the British 
crown, and starting them on a national career of their 
own. 

Among the Chinese tea has long been in common use. 
An Arabian merchant, Soliman, who visited China more 
than a thousand years ago, spoke of it as the common 
beverage of the people. Its use in Europe appears to 
have been very limited till the early part of the seven- 
teenth century. The Portuguese had held commercial 
intercourse with the Chinese long before that time, and 
had doubtless acquired, to some extent, a relish for the 



CULTIVATION OF TEA. 395 

herb ; but it was almost unknown in Europe till after the 
formation of the Dutch East India Company, about the 
close of the sixteenth century. The Hollanders, at that 
time a leading maritime nation, imported a considerable 
quantity of the article, and it slowly came into favor in 
Great Britain and on the Continent. 

In 1660 it was so far introduced among the English 
people, that the sale of it in the saloons was seized upon 
as a source of revenue to the government. Parliament 
that year passed an act imposing a tax of eightpence per 
gallon on all tea made and sold in coffee-houses. The 
drinking of tea must have been a costly luxury, since the 
price of it in England then was three guineas per pound. 
In less than fifty years from that time the price had fallen 
to about one fifth of that sum. 

The consumption of tea in the United States amounts 
to more than 30,000,000 pounds per annum, or nearly 
one pound for each inhabitant. 

Americans use an unduly large proportion of green 
tea, but no Chinaman would think of drinking this va- 
riety which we so highly prize, for they know that the 
greenness which gives it such value in our estimation is 
not a natural condition of the leaf in its dried state. It 
is obtained by the admixture of foreign substances, and 
poisonous ones at that. Prussian blue, and other inju- 
rious substances, are used in the preparation of green 
tea. 

The tea shrub is an evergreen, and may be propagated 
either by seeds or slips. The illustration which we give 
was drawn by a Chinese artist, and represents the young 
plant just springing from the ground. The hoe in the 
hands of the cooly is a rude affair, — a blade of wood 
shod with iron, and a bamboo handle. 

In some portions of the country the hoes are wholly 
of iron, but nearly all of the agricultural implements are 



396 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



clumsy and ill adapted for use. It is not to be wondered 
at, for the memory of the writer runs back to the time 




■^fc - 



THE YOUNG PLANT. 



when ploughs in New England had wooden mould-boards 
plated with old ox-shoes and bits of iron, when the 
shovels were of wood shod with iron, and the forks so 
clumsy and unpolished that there was a great waste of 
strength in using them. 




c&*^ 



TRANSPLANTING. 



CULTIVATION OF TEA. 397 

When the tea-plant has attained a height of a foot or 
more, it is transplanted into well-cultivated fields. The 
cooly, as will be seen in the illustration, uses a long knife 
in opening the mellow soil. Slips from the main stalk 
are taken off, set out in trenches, and subsequently trans- 
planted. 

Though it sometimes attains a growth that would seem 
to give it a right to be ranked among trees, yet as culti- 
vated by the Chinese it is not often mora than seven feet 
in height. The root is not unlike that of the peach, and 
the plant is very tenacious of life. It blossoms in the 
winter, the flower resembling the wild rose. The seeds 
contain considerable oleaginous matter, and a commodity 
called "tea oil" is extracted from them. 

The shrub is hardy and thrives well on poor, gravelly 
soil. It is very desirable to have a southern aspect, since 
sunshine promotes the thrift of the plant, and greatly im- 
proves the quality of the tea. 

The leaves are gathered three times a year. The first 
picking occurs early in the spring, while the leaves are 
young and tender. This crop is mostly bought up by the 
mandarins and wealthy people. Very little, if any, of this 
harvest ever reaches America. The second plucking comes 
several weeks later, and the quality is inferior. 

The third picking is in midsummer, quality poorer still. 
and it is gathered with less care. 

The tea is prepared for market by roasting, or firing, as 
the process is called. Iron pans are brought to different 
degrees of heat over charcoal fires. The tea is first sub- 
jected to a low degree of heat ; when sufficiently heated 
it is thrown upon a mat, and the leaves are rolled, then 
passed into the second pan, which has a higher temper- 
ature, then rolled again. Each process is called " a firing." 
The tea is greeued by the use of turmeric, Prussian blue., 
and gypsum. The turmeric is applied at a low degree of 



898 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 





FIRING TEA. 



heat, the other coloring matter at a later stage and over 

a hotter fire. 
The leaf at the 
first has quite a 
brownish hue, 
but when thus 
treated is of a 
bright green. 

The tea used 
for home con- 
sumption is not 
doctored. The 
Chinese wonder 
at the taste of 
people who live on the other side of the globe. They do not 
drink strong teas. The best article does not greatly color 
the water in which it is infused ; and most foreigners, if 
they were to judge of its excellence by the eye, would pro- 
nounce it " slops," but tasting it would elicit a different opin- 
ion. When a Chinaman wishes to make a superb drink, he 
selects the tender 
leaves of a young 
plant. He does 
not boil them, but 
pours boiling water 
upon them, keep- 
ing in the aroma by 
having a close-fit- 
ting cover to the 
pot or cup in which 
the tea is made. 

In packing tea 
one man pours it 
into the chest from 
a basket, while an- 





CULTIVATION OF TEA- 399 

other tramples it with, his bare feet. It is not pleasant 
to think of while you are sipping the beverage. But 
peasants in France tread the wine-press, and if they do 
not defile the nectar good enough for the gods, why 
should we sicken at the thought that a Chinaman's heel 
has pressed the tea into a chest ? Perhaps sugar would 
not be quite so toothsome as it is, if we knew all about 
the processes going on in refineries, where men wear such 
scant clothing that the sight of them reminds us of the 
Mermaid of the Ehine, 

" Vot had n't got nodings on," 

as sung by Hans Breitman. 

The tea being packed into the chest, the lead is sol- 
dered, cover nailed down, paper pasted over, and the 
" chop " mark affixed, matting sewed over all, and it is 
ready for shipment. 

All of the English and American tea firms have 
tasters, who take samples of each " chop," steep it, test it 
by taste, . weight, and measure, and thus ascertain its 
quality. The tasting-room of an old established house 
resembles a pantry, china-closet, and canned fruit shop all 
in one. Samples of all the teas purchased since the firm 
commenced are preserved in the cans, which are labelled 
with cost, quality, and year of purchase. On tasting-day 
fifty or one hundred samples are prepared, — so many 
grains weighed out, steeped so many minutes in a given 
quantity of water, then poured into small china cups, 
tasted. The entire " chop " or lot is judged by the 
sample. 

The tea district is mainly south of the Yangtse River, 
extending from the sea-coast eight hundred miles inland. 
It thrives on the hills and in the soil of that region. 
Foochow on the coast, Mngpo, Shanghae, and Hankow, 
are the chief shipping ports. 



400 OUR NEW WAY EOUND THE WOELD. 

In the tea-saloons we notice that all grounds are care- 
fully saved. Those in our own cups, as well as those in 
the cups of the natives who drink at a neighboring table, 
are tossed into a basket, which when full is emptied 
upon a screen placed in the sun. After drying awhile 
they are " fired " again, coloring matter added, the leaves 
re-rolled, trodden a second time beneath the feet of a na- 
tive, repacked and sold, as good as new, to do service once 
more, — quite likely in the United States ! 

The average cost of teas in China is from fifteen to 
twenty cents per pound, but duties, freights, insurance, 
interest on capital, profits to importers and middle-men, 
swell it to prices which make it an article of luxury. 

More poor tea is drank in the United States than in 
any other land. Eussia imports the best. England 
stands next, and consumes an enormous quantity. France 
uses very little, and a small quantity is consumed on the 
Continent. Cheap wine and beer take its place. 

The value of the export of tea from China to Great 
Britain and the United States is as follows : — 

To Great Britain in 1867. 

Black tea $11,440,000 

Green tea ...... 4,061,000 



$15,501,000 
To United States. 

Black tea . $2,007,066 

Green tea . . . ■ . . 5,503,000 



$7,510,066 



The commercial relations between the United States 
and China do not make a very flattering exhibit for our- 
selves. The total exports to the United States in 1866 
were valued at seven million eight hundred and twenty- 
three thousand dollars, while the value of goods sent to' 






CULTIVATION OF TEA. 401 

China was only two hundred and eighty-nine thousand dol- 
lars ! The balance, more than seven and one half mil- 
lions, was paid in silver. 

Great Britain shows a different balance-sheet. That 
country exported to China in 1866 produce amounting to 
ninety-nine million dollars, and received from China, for 
herself and colonies, in produce, fifty-two million one 
hundred and eighty-six thousand dollars, and the balance 
of thirty-three million four hundred and eighty-nine thou- 
sand was in specie ! By forcing opium upon the Chinese, 
she is able to carry on her India government with a full 
exchequer, and at the same time make China her debtor 
more than thirty-three millions per annum ! 

America never will compete with England in selling- 
opium to the Chinese, inasmuch as it cannot be raised 
profitably in this country. We shall not send whiskey 
across the Pacific, for they do not crave it. If they wish 
to get intoxicated, they can do it much more cheaply by 
drin long their own samshu. If we would stop the out- 
flow of specie, we must export more goods or import less 
tea and silk. But our importations, instead of diminish- 
ing, are on the increase. We have a rapid growth, and a 
corresponding demand for tea and silk. China at the 
present time takes about six million dollars' worth per 
annum of cloth, mainly gray cottons. 

The United States might supply nearly the entire 
amount, for the cottons are mostly coarse and can be 
woven more cheaply in American looms than anywhere 
else. A visit to a warehouse in China where American 
and English cottons are stored side by side will enable us 
to understand why England successfully competes with us. 

It is a long voyage from England to this country. 
Ships are four to five months making the passage, passing 
twice through the tropics. English shippers accordingly 
pay great attention to the packing of goods. Every bale, 



402 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

after being compressed, is bound with iron and encased in 
water-proof wrapping. 

Not so the goods from the United States, which often 
are mildewed when unpacked. The result is that Ameri- 
can cottons are out of favor. California flour and the 
lumber of Oregon have found a favorable market; but 
unless the manufacturers and shippers of the United States 
obtain possession of the trade in cotton fabrics, we shall 
always be compelled to send our silver to China. 



CHAPTER L. 

THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 

CHINA is awaking from her long repose. 
" I aver," says Mr. Burlingame, " that there is no 
spot on this earth where there has been greater progress 
made within the past four years than in the Empire of 
China. She has extended her business and reformed her 
revenue system ; she is changing her naval and military 
organizations, and is establishing a great school where 
modern science and the foreign languages are taught. 
She has done this under very adverse circumstances. 
She has done this after a great war lasting through 
thirteen years, — a war out of which she comes with 
no national debt." * 

The University which has been established at Pekin is 
for the education of Chinese scholars in the modern 
sciences and languages. It was founded through the 
influence of Prince Kung, the emperor's uncle, and the 
most influential man in the empire. 

* Speech in New York, June 28, 1868. 



THE FU1URE OF CHINA. 403 

Eev. Dr. Martin, a native of Indiana, for eighteen 
years a missionary, lias been appointed President. Eng- 
lish, French, and German are taught by competent profes- 
sors. 

Fifty-six students are under training for official posi- 
tions. Ninety were sent last year from the district 
colleges, having been selected by competitive examina- 
tion, of whom twenty-seven were found qualified for 
admission to the University. 

The mandarins do not all look with favor upon this 
enterprise. They know that knowledge is power, and 
ignorance weakness ; that if learned men come up, igno- 
rant men, though they may wear three buttons, in time 
will have to go down. Here and there a mandarin is 
found ready to uphold the government in its new pro- 
gressive policy. 

Not long since a book appeared, written by a high 
official, upon the course of the government in granting 
concessions to foreigners, and the influence of missiona- 
ries. The following literal translation of a single sen- 
tence shows the largeness and liberality of his views. 
He says : — 

" The advantages resulting from commercial inter- 
course are not sufficient to compensate its attendant 
evils, but the benefits resulting from the enlightening 
influences of missionary teaching are more than can be 
enumerated." 

That the missionaries are held in high esteem is shown 
by the positions they occupy. Dr. Martin is at the head 
of the University. Dr. Williams is connected with the 
United States legation at Pekin, and Mr. Burlingame 
would have found his diplomatic duties much more ardu- 
ous than they were had it not been for the thorough 
acquaintance of this gentleman with China and her insti- 
tutions. Eev. Mr. Yates is interpreter to the Municipal 



404 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Council at Shanghae, and Dr. Jenkins to the United 
States consul. Dr. Jenkins has a son who is interpre- 
ter at Hankow. At Canton Dr. Owens is translator to 
the consulate. Were it not for the missionaries, the 
ministers and consuls would find it difficult to get 
on with their business. The governmental language is 
the mandarin dialect, wholly distinct from the provin- 
cial. The common people and the mercantile commu- 
nity know nothing of the mandarin, speaking only the 
dialect of their several provinces : hence it is that the 
services of the missionaries are indispensable. The gov- 
ernment has felt the want of competent scholars, and 
has established the University to educate men for offi- 
cial positions. Progress is in the right direction, — 
literary, scientific, and practical. Dr. Martin has com- 
pleted a new work on natural science, — philosophy, 
chemistry, astronomy, geology, well illustrated with draw- 
ings by Chinese artists. In the illustrations, where the 
artist is not called upon to exercise his own imagination, 
the execution is excellent, but in a few engravings, where 
they have recourse to their own ideas, there are amusing 
blunders. The book is beautifully printed by block-work. 
They have not learned to use types, though ten centuries 
before Guttenberg began to multiply books at Mayence 
on the Rhine, when Borne was in her glory, even as far 
back as the age of Pericles, if we may believe Chinese 
history, books were printed in this country. 

The establishment of the University was resisted by 
the reactionary party of the empire. There are men 
here, as well as in other lands, who want things to 
continue just as they are. Is it any wonder that the 
Chinese cling with pertinacity to the institutions of their 
fathers ? Like their own great river, flowing from the 
Himalayas to the sea; has been the steady, unbroken cur- 
rent of their history. What American does not feel a 



THE FUTURE OF CHINA- 405 

glow of patriotic pride at the progress in freedom and 
intelligence, attained during the two centuries of our 
existence ? We begin to feel that we are in the vigor 
of national manhood. But we are to measure our two 
hundred years with the four thousand of China. What 
Englishman standing beneath the groined arches of West- 
minster, gazing upon the tattered and dusty banners 
above him, once borne by departed kings of the realm, 
does not plume himself upon being "a Briton ? His 
country has a history, a national life reaching back 
to the Heptarchy, a thousand years ! 

Age is venerable. We take off our hats in its presence. 
We stand with awe upon the forum of old Eome, and 
bow with uncovered head upon the Bema of Athens, 
while the procession of statesmen, heroes, philosophers, 
and sages of ancient times passes by. 

Is it surprising that the Chinese, with a history reach- 
ing back to the time of Moses, with a code of laws 
framed when Babylon was mistress of the world, feel 
proud of their civilization ? 

If this were a treatise upon the science of government 
or civilization, instead of a book of observations, we 
might profitably inquire how it happens that China has 
lived for forty centuries, while everywhere else national 
life, Like a plant, has had growth and decay ? Is it in 
the pacific temper of the people ? China never has been 
aggressive. Egypt waged war with all her contempora- 
ries. Sparta, Athens, Macedon, and the other members 
of the Grecian family, were ever quarrelling among them- 
selves, or else combined against the Persians. Eome 
trampled all nations beneath her feet. The governments 
of modern Europe have ever been ready to interfere in 
the affairs of their neighbors. But China has remained 
at home and minded her own business. It is not that 
she has been isolated. Genghis Khan found means to 



406 Otr. NEW WAY ROUND THE WOKLD. 

traverse the region of Central Asia and pour his conquer- 
ing hosts upon the plains of India. Tamerlane found no 
obstacle in his westward march from Tartary. There 
were no greater obstacles in the way of any aspiring and 
ambitious monarch of China, but no one of her emperors 
had a disposition to conquer other lands. They had vast 
navies, and might have invaded India by sea. There was 
constant intercourse between the two countries through 
the early centuries of our era. 

China has always been the chief commercial nation of 
the East. She has had myriads of people from which to 
raise armies, but has never called them to the field to 
wage aggressive war upon a neighboring state. In this 
respect she has been a Quaker among the nations ; if not 
a peacemaker, hardly ever a peace-breaker. 

Undoubtedly the pacific temperament of the people 
has been one cause of the great duration of national life, 
for a peaceful temper is conducive to longevity. 

Perhaps a stronger reason may be found in the demo- 
cratic principle which lies at the foundation of her politi- 
cal system. It may seem a contradiction to say that a 
government with a monarchical head can have a demo- 
cratic base. But the Chinese have this political axiom : 
" The will of the people is the will of Heaven, and 
must not be set at naught by the Emperor the Son of 
Heaven." 

Four thousand years ago the emperors were chosen by 
the nobles, who, in making their selection, took into view 
the virtues of the candidates, no less than their talents 
and rank. Hence the illustrious Yaou was elected in 
preference to an older brother, who led a dissolute life. 
In succeeding elections the emperor's sons were passed 
by and others chosen. But there is a bewitching charm 
in royalty, and in time an emperor came to the throne 
who cared more for the transmission of the crown to his 



THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 40? 

posterity than for the rights of the people or wishes of 
the nobles. 

As Napoleon, fascinated by power, turned a consulate 
into a monarchy, so the Emperor Yu changed the Chinese 
government from an elective to a hereditary form. By 
this change the principal heir of the emperor succeeded 
to the throne, while the other members of the royal family 
were provided for by making them rulers over the dif- 
ferent provinces. They became hereditary governors, 
and in a few generations the feudal system was firmly 
established. The power of the central government was 
in some measure held in check by the feudal lords, while 
in case of invasion all were united in defence against the 
common foe. 

Perhaps for those rude ages, when life and property 
were insecure, when their northern neighbors, more war- 
like than themselves, were liable at any time to lay waste 
the country, the Chinese could not have adopted a gov- 
ernmental policy more serviceable to them. At any rate, 
this order of things continued for the greater part of 
twenty centuries. The essays, poems, and other writings 
of literary men of ancient times recognize this form of 
government, and discourse as fully upon the relations of 
the local governments to one another and to the im- 
perial authority as American politicians do upon " State 
rights " and " Federal powers." Confucius, in a beautiful 
simile, likens the imperial power to the polar star,, and 
the principalities to constellations revolving around it. 

In the year 246 B. C, Lecheng, a powerful, ambitious 
noble, usurped the throne and proclaimed himself ruler, 
under the title of the first Whangte. He established 
despotic rule, destroyed the power of the feudal lords, and 
did what he could to blot from the memory of the people 
all recollection of the checks that had formerly existed to 
limit the imperial power. His maxim was, " G-ood gov- 



408 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

eminent is irreconcilable with a multitude of masters." 
He was bold and bad ; burned the classics that he might 
make more secure the continuance of absolutism ; built 
the great bulwark against the Tartars, which stands to 
this day ; but the dynasty which he established in usur- 
pation and blood was of short duration. 

Some of his successors encouraged literature, but most 
of them sought their own gratification rather than the 
good of their subjects. 

Cruel and tyrannical as were some of the rulers, much 
that is valuable has come down from those distant 
periods. During the rule of the Han dynasty the classics 
were restored, and the democratic principle of competitive 
examinations established. The invention of paper, the 
discovery of the art of printing, the advancement in 
education, and the multiplication of books in that epoch, 
gave a great stimulus to national life. 

Because the people now have a voice in electing their 
rulers and administering government, and from the 
fact that knowledge is diffused, this nation, which has 
been considered as dead, by being brought in contact 
with the nations of the West is now taking a new lease 
of life. 

China was awakened by the thunder of England's 
cannon. Knowing little of the power of modern civ- 
ilization, wise in their own conceit, proud of their 
longevity, looking upon themselves as the favored of 
Heaven and perfect in all things, and the rest of man- 
kind as barbarians, they were the most arrogant people 
in the world. 

The lesson which England taught them in 1842 was 
as salutary as if it had been prompted by a disinterested 
motive. 

It was a severe lecture which they received in 185*8, 
when the allied forces quartered themselves in the im- 



THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 409 

penal palace at Pekin. Then the government began to 
understand that Western civilization was superior to that 
of China, and from that time to the present the empire 
has made wonderful progress. 

The treaties of 1858 are now subject to revision. Mr. 
Burlingame has already negotiated a supplementary treaty 
at Washington, which is denounced by men in California 
and Oregon, and by foreign merchants in China, as being 
one-sided, and as giving the Chinese the<best part of the 
bargain. It is presumed that any treaties which may be 
concluded between China and European powers will be 
similar to this, as China cannot consistently grant privi- 
leges to one which at the same time are not common to 
all. Under the present treaty, twelve ports are accessible 
to foreign trade and residence ; the Yangtse is open for 
steamers to Hankow ; foreigners can travel with passports 
anywhere for business or pleasure ; they can send foreign 
goods into the interior by paying a definite commutation, 
fixed at one half the ordinary rates levied on merchan- 
dise in transit. 

But merchants in China ask for still greater privileges. 
They are Anglo-Saxons, — energetic, restless, and animat- 
ed by progressive ideas. They want full liberty to live 
anywhere, to navigate all the waters of the empire with 
steamers. They want railroads and telegraphs. They 
are anxious to work coal-mines, and set up machinery for 
manufacturing purposes. The empire must be thrown 
open to modern civilization, and, if China refuses, she 
must be forced to accede to the demands of modern 
times. 

It would not be just to assert that such is the posi- 
tion taken by all the foreign merchants in China, but 
such are the demands of some of them. 

The mission of Mr. Burlingame is freely discussed, and 
not always in a friendly spirit. It would not be strange 
is 



410 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD 

if that ambassador, animated and enthusiastic in carrying 
out his mission, should arrive at an exalted opinion of 
the desire of the Chinese to enter upon the new path. 
He has been brought in contact with Prince Kung, the 
leader of the progressive party in the government, but 
there is a strong reactionary party, backed up by the 
ignorance and degradation of the empire. 

The English residents in China have little faith that 
the Chinese will advance, except as they are pushed. 
Sitting in the club-house at Shanghae, we hear a great deal 
said about knocking the heads of the Chinamen as the 
only way to obtain any new concessions. Whatever may 
be the amount of moral force which America has at 
Pekin, whether greater or less than that of England, 
any one visiting China will not need such a "pair of 
microscopes" as Mr. Samuel Weller described while 
giving his testimony in the case of Bardell vs. Pickwick 
to see that the physical force of England is held in high 
respect by the Chinese. The United States government 
has no troops outside of its own territory ; but English 
soldiers and war-ships are here, to back up any demand 
made by the Queen's ambassador or consul. There is no 
dillydallying on the part of her officials in obtaining re- 
dress, if harm is done to English residents. The policy 
of Great Britain, we think, is more in favor with the for- 
eign merchants than, that pursued by the United States. 
Whether it is the best is another matter, to say nothing 
of the moral aspects of the question. The merchants con- 
tend that it is a kindness to China to compel her to adopt 
the improvements of modern times, and that, unless she 
accepts them, she will not be able to avert internal dis- 
sensions, or oppose her powerful Muscovite neighbor ad- 
vancing towards her northern boundary. 

On the other hand, the Chinese object to foreigners 
residing in the interior and introducing new inventions; 



THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 411 

unless under native jurisdiction. They know that the 
introduction of steamers on the rivers, machinery in the 
workshops and fields, will revolutionize society, and 
that millions will be driven from their present pur- 
suits. Undoubtedly there are many Americans who look 
upon China as a great missionary field, where we, in con- 
sequence of our geographical position, are to civilize one 
third of the human race. Let us see how we have com- 
menced. In California and Oregon a Chinaman has no 
rights which an American is bound to respect. Oregon 
orders them out of her domain. Laws are passed dis- 
criminating against them. No Chinaman can toil in the 
gold-mines . of the Pacific coast without paying an exor- 
bitant tax. An Oregonian going to China is allowed to 
remain in peace. He may find justice in American con- 
sular courts, irrespective of Chinese jurisdiction. If he 
wishes to send goods into the interior, the revenue laws 
discriminate in his favor. Would the people of the 
United States consent to the establishment of a foreign 
court in San Francisco ? But China has granted us the 
right to make our own municipal laws at Shanghae, and 
to find redress in our own tribunals. A Chinaman walk- 
ing peaceably through the streets of San Francisco is set 
upon by a brutal mob, knocked down, and kicked into 
the gutter, because he is an Asiatic. 

" You call yourselves Christians," is his only reply, as 
he rises and brushes the dirt from his clothes, and goes 
peaceably on his way. 

He might plead till doomsday before the courts for 
redress, without obtaining it. 

■ We ramble alone, day after day, through Canton, 
Shanghae, and the great cities in the interior of the 
empire, without molestation. Were we maltreated, the 
consul would demand instant redress, and obtain it ! 

California and Oregon protest against the introduction 



412 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

of Chinese labor, because it competes with the Irish labor 
in those States. 

" The introduction of your own steamers," says Mr. 
Buiiingame, "throws out of employment one hundred 
thousand junk-men, and the introduction of several hun- 
dred foreigners into civil service embittered of course the 
ancient native employees." The Celt just over from Ire- 
land, with the ink scarcely dry upon his naturalization 
papers, proposes to shut out the more industrious Asiatic 
from all chance of employment in this country ; and par- 
tisan politicians, devoid of all sense of honor and justice, 
and comprehending nothing of the true principles of 
democratic economy, pass laws which are a disgrace to 
our country. 

The people of California and Oregon may hang their 
heads in shame when they contrast their treatment of the 
Chinese with that which Americans receive in China 
Their persecution of the Asiatics demands the reprobation 
of the nation. 

That the government and the people of China are 
moving slowly along the path of progress cannot be 
doubted, yet it will take a long while to overcome the 
inertia of the mighty mass. It would not be strange 
if the reactionary party should yet succeed in obstructing 
the onward movement. There are men in China, as there 
are in California, who would like to see all foreigners 
swept into the sea. People who have been thrown out 
of employment by the introduction of steamboats are 
restless ; mandarins who see their power departing are 
ready to stir up discontent. There cannot be a social 
revolution without a disturbance of elements, and it will 
be contrary to the experience of all history if China is an. 
exception. 



NOETHEEN CHINA. 413 



CHAPTEE LI. 

NOETHERN CHINA. 

TEAVELLEES visiting Northern China make Shang- 
hae their point of departure. Unfortunately for us, 
we are here at the very worst season for a journey to 
Pekin, and are compelled to forego the pleasure which we 
had anticipated in visiting the capital of the empire. The 
discomforts more than counterbalance the pleasure if the 
trip is made in July or August. It should be undertaken 
in May, June, September, or October. It must be re- 
membered that there are no comfortable hotels, and that 
the only accommodation is that furnished by the native 
inns. The midsummer months are intensely hot, the 
winter and early spring cold, rainy, and disagreeable. 

Steamers leave Shanghae every week for the northern 
ports. The first stopping-place is at Cheefoo, on the 
promontory of Shantung. The fare from Shanghae to 
that city is sixty-six dollars, and the voyage occupies four 
days. The province of which this is the chief port is a 
little larger than the State of New York, and contains 
twenty-eight million inhabitants. The promontory is 
hilly, but the interior is a low plain, intersected by a 
network of creeks and small rivers, through which the 
Yellow Eiver pours its flood to the sea. 

Cheefoo is considered the healthiest section of China 
accessible to foreigners, and during the hot months is a 
resort for those residing at Pekin and Shanghae. 

From Cheefoo the steamer sails across the gulf of 
Pechili to the village of Taku, situated at the mouth of 
the Peiho, and from thence to Tientsin, sixty-seven 



414 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

miles up that stream, which closes to navigation about 
the middle of November, and does not reopen till March. 
The lands are low, — laid off into rice-fields and orchards, 
— the river is so winding and narrow that the steamers 
not unfrequently come to a stand-still in the mud-banks. 

Formerly communication with Shanghae was by the 
Grand Canal ; but since the Yellow River has run away 
from its old channel and found new outlets to the sea, a 
portion of the canal has become useless, and the trade 
and travel is now along the coast in junks and foreign 
steamers. 

Tientsin has a population of about four hundred thou- 
sand. It is one of the filthiest cities in China, and very 
unhealthy. To one who has seen Canton and the in- 
terior cities of the empire, it will present few objects of 
interest ; but it is accounted one of the best places in 
China for foreign trade, and a hotel has been opened by 
a Frenchman. Several missionaries reside there, from 
whom travellers will always receive courteous attention. 

It is eighty miles from Tientsin to Pekin, and there are 
two routes, one by boat to Tungchow, which is thirteen 
miles from the capital, the other by cart all the way from 
Tientsin. The journey by land requires three, that by 
the river five clays. The cost of a boat for the trip is 
from seven to ten dollars. The charge for a cart and one 
mule, one dollar per day ; two mules, two dollars. 

There is no harder riding than in a China cart. The 
wheels are clumsy, the body nailed to the axle, and 
there is no seat, spring, or cushion. The mules are har- 
nessed tandem. The road is worn by constant travel, and 
there are deep ruts, sloughs, and miry places, which the 
driver is not careful to avoid. The only accommodations 
for the night will be those furnished at the native way- 
side inns. The thirteen-mile ride from Tungchow to 
Pekin will be as much native cart-riding; as most travel- 



NORTHERN CHINA. 415 

iers will care for. The conveyance by boat will be far 
more comfortable. 

Passports are needed to Pekin, which may be obtained 
of the consul at Tientsin. 

Pekin is an old city. It was the capital of the king- 
dom of Yen. From Chinese records we learn that 222 
B. C. it fell into the hands of the Tsin dynasty. Genghis 
Khan captured it 1215 A. D., and it has been the capital 
of the empire from that time to the present. 

It is composed of two parts, — the northern or Tartar, 
the southern or Chinese city. The former contains about 
twelve square miles, and is surrounded by a wall about 
fifty feet high and forty thick, with frequent buttresses. 
Within this area is the imperial palace and the resi- 
dences of the officials. 

The Chinese section is also walled, and contains the 
shops and residences of the mercantile and industrial por- 
tion of the community. The total circumference of the 
two cities is about twenty miles, and the population prob- 
ably is not far from two million. 

As in all Chinese cities, the dull uniformity is unbroken 
by spires, domes, or towers, and the only objects seen 
above the tiled roofs are the numerous flag-staffs which 
stand in front of the official residences of the mandarins. 

The walls that surround the imperial palace enclose 
a space about a mile square. It is known by the foreign- 
ers as the " Prohibited City," into which no one is allowed 
to enter unless connected with the royal family or high in 
official position. 

According to Chinese writers, the room in winch the 
emperor receives his officers of state is painted in ver- 
milion and carpeted with yellow velvet, figured with 
black dragons. 

Within the enclosure is the " Palace of the Earth's Ee- 
pose," and the " Heavenly Flower Garden " ; in plain 



416 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

English, they would be called the palace and garden of 
the empress. In the eastern division of the Prohibited 
City is the " Hall of Intense Thought " ; also the " Hall 
of the Literary Abyss " ! — in other words, the hall where 
Confucius is worshipped, and the library. 

Among the objects of interest in the Tartar city is 
the Lama Temple, containing a colossal image of Buddha 
sixty feet high, composed of wood and clay, with a bronzed 
surface. The temples are numerous, but they are not 
more magnificent than those of Canton or of the cities 
in the interior. Pekin has not yet recovered from its 
capture by the Allies in 1860, when several of the pal- 
aces were destroyed. 

The great wall, which is one of the chief objects of 
interest in this empire, is about fifty miles north of the 
city. It is a five days' excursion to that wonderful struc- 
ture, reared two and a half centuries before the Christian 
era. This, and the few temples in Pekin, are the only par- 
ticular objects of interest in Northern China. 

The round trip from Shanghae will require one month, 
and the expense will be from $ 250 to $ 300. Probably 
most travellers will leave it out of their programme, and 
devote the time to other portions of the route around 
the world. 

Bidding farewell to the many kind acquaintances at 
Shanghae, who have made our stay pleasant and profit- 
able, we steam down .the Wusung into the Yangtse on 
the Costa Rica of the Pacific mail line of steamships. 

We have agreeable company in the person of Captain 
Phelps, formerly of the United States navy, and now 
principal agent of the steamship company in China and 
Japan, residing at Yokohama. 

The Costa Pica has two barges in tow, which are to be 
taken to Nagasaki. The distance is four hundred and 
eighty miles, and the trip is usually made in forty-eight 




GARDEN OF THE EMPRESS. 



NORTHERN CHINA. 417 

hours ; but for five days we are tossed and tumbled on 

the Yellow Sea in a typhoon. 

The gentle breeze of the morning gradually freshens. 
The barges break loose, are picked up and more securely 
fastened. The waves increase in height. The light 
fleecy clouds, flitting up from the southeast, assume a 
grayer hue. The gale is rising to a tempest. The stout 
warps, which were attached to the lighters in the morn- 
ing, vibrate across the waves like the overstrained strings 
of a harp, then part, and they are free once more. 
Darkness is coming on, and a boat would hardly live 
in such a sea. Through the night they drift while we 
steam around them, the wheels slowly turning. They 
are too valuable to be abandoned. The wildness of the 
night is succeeded by a calmer morning. The boats are 
launched, and the truants secured, this time with newer 
and stronger cables. 

But space is wanting for a detailed narrative of the 
greater fury of the storm, — the sailors lashing them- 
selves to the rigging ; the laboring of the ship through the 
lagging hours, rolling the passengers out of their berths ; 
the cannon breaking loose, crashing into the cattle- 
pens, and crushing the legs of the cows ; waves dashing 
over the deck, washing the geese from their pen, taking 
the cackling flock out to sea; chairs and tables tum- 
bling, crockery smashing, wind howling, lightning flash- 
ing ; a mighty billow rolling over the steamer, ingulfing 
the barges, severing the two eleven-inch and the five 
three-inch best Manila cables, between them and the 
ship, as if they were but threads ! 

The storm has ceased, and the sea no longer raves. 
We are in sight of Japan. 

" Earth how beautiful ! how clear 
Of cloud or mist the atmosphere ! 
What a glory greets the eye ! " 
18* AA 



418 QUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD 

Hill upon hill, mountain upon mountain ; white sand 
and gray rocks along the shore ; groves of pine and palm, 
bamboo and oak ; terraces, gardens, and orchards adorn- 
ing the land ; villages reposing in peaceful vales ; the 
boats of fishermen anchored in snug harbors or sailing 
over the sea. Charming the scene ! 



CHAPTEK LII. 

APPROACH TO NAGASAKI. 

THE harbor of Nagasaki is approached through a 
narrow inlet which is so concealed from view by 
small islands that mariners unacquainted with the coast 
sometimes are puzzled to find it. Not till we are close in 
shore can we see any opening among the hills. There 
are small sheds upon the hillsides, that, upon a close 
inspection, we discover to be erected over cannon placed 
en barbette in fortifications commanding the entrance. 
About fifty guns are in position, mostly twenty-four- 
pounders, — bronze ordnance, cast several hundred years 
ago, and said to contain a large percentage of silver. 
They probably would not be any more effective on that 
account, but are more valuable than old iron for smelting. 
None of the foreign powers as yet have had any serious 
conflict with the Japanese, and their military prowess has 
not been tested, but they are following in the path of 
Western nations in naval and military preparations. A 
gunboat, built in England, lies off the harbor as we 
approach, looking after the vessels coaling at an island 
at our right hand, where coal of excellent quality is 
mined. 



APPROACH TO NAGASAKI. 



419 



Before us rises the island of Pappenberg, a conical hill 
barely a mile in circumference, with a perpendicular pre- 
cipice a hundred feet high upon the southern side. 
When Christianity was suppressed, three hundred years 




WESTERN JAPAN. 



ago, it was the scene of a terrible slaughter. Twenty 
thousand men, women, and children were driven up the 
slope, upon the northern side, and pitched headlong down 
the declivity upon the rocks below. No Christian is 
allowed to visit it. We pass within cable's length of the 
rocks on which the martyrs to the faith gave up their 
lives. Fishermen are casting their nets along the shore, 
where the mangled bodies were tumbled into the deep. 
No monument marks the spot ; but the gray cliff, wearing 
its emerald crown, is an everlasting memorial to the mar- 
tyred dead : — 



420 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

" Like sheep to slaughter led, 
Unmurmuring they met their cruel fate ; 
For conscious innocence their souls upheld, 
In patient virtue great." 

Passing the island, we enter the narrow inlet and be« 
hold the harbor, — a deep indentation of the coast, two 
miles in length, about a mile wide, and surrounded by 
high hills. At our right hand are the residences of 
foreigners, and beyond them the city. 

We have reached a new empire, and, before landing, 
we may profitably review its history. 

In 1853 Commodore Perry, commanding a United 
States fleet, appeared off the coast of Japan to hold com- 
munication with a people which for centuries had held 
themselves aloof from the rest of the world. The first 
treaty between the Tycoon and the United States was 
signed the succeeding year. It provided that citizens 
of America should be allowed to trade at two ports, 
under restrictions ; that supplies should be furnished 
to ships putting into those harbors ; and that shipwrecked 
sailors should be well treated. In 1858 a more satis- 
factory treaty was negotiated. This action of our country 
stirred up other nations ; and Great Britain, the Nether- 
lands, Prance, Eussia, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, and 
Prussia made haste to open diplomatic and commercial 
relations with the Tycoon. 

Although ten years have elapsed since the signing of 
the last treaty, we know very little of the country or 
its government. And yet this is one of the oldest na- 
tions on the face of the earth, with a history going back 
nearly to the time of Moses. Through the long centuries 
revolutions, wars, the struggles of dynasties, all have been 
going on here. 

The first allusion in European writings to Japan is in 
Marco Polo's account of his travels in Cathay, who was 
at the court of Ghengis Khan of Tartary from 1260 to 



APPROACH TO NAGASAKI 421 

1294 A D. That great Tartar chieftain fitted out a grand 
expedition for the conquest of this empire of Zipangu, — 
the Japanese pronunciation of the word Japan, 

The country was discovered by the Portuguese in 1542, 
in that age which, above all others, was marked by zeal 
for the propagation of religion. It was in 1540 that 
seven young men met in a little underground chapel in 
Paris, and organized themselves into a "society, taking 
solemn vows never to marry, to remain always in poverty, 
to render absolute obedience to their chief; to go at any 
instant, by day or by night, into unknown danger, — to 
the burning sands of Africa, to the jungles of Asia ; to 
employ any means, — truth when it would serve, false- 
hood and duplicity when nothing else would do, — to 
propagate the Gospel. Their election of a chief fell 
upon Ignatius Loyola, whose ablest follower was Francis 
Xavier. 

India was then conspicuously before the Western na- 
tions. All governments were reaching out their hands to 
grasp the wealth of that land which exported gold, ivory, 
and peacock's feathers, whose rivers sparkled with dia- 
monds, whose temple roofs were overlaid with pure gold, 
and whose barbaric kings displayed wealth greater than 
that of all Christendom. It was an age of greed as well 
as of zeal. The chief officer of the Society of Jesus and 
his most devoted followers were in Spain in 1542. 

At that time a vessel was fitting out in one of the ports 
for Goa, the Portuguese colony of India. 

At a day's notice from Loyola, Xavier was ready for 
the journey to his future field of labor. He stopped not 
to bid farewell to friends, made no provision for the 
voyage, packed no ponderous trunks, but with his old 
tattered cloak, a bag over his shoulder, started upon his 
far-distant mission, reached Goa before the end of the 
year, went to the Straits of Malacca, visited the neigh- 



4:22 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

boring islands, where he fell in with a Japanese named 
Angrio, who had been brought to Malacca by the Portu- 
guese, and -who accepted the new religion. Xavier pushed 
on to Japan, arrived here at Nagasaki in 1549, made a 
few converts, obtained information, laid plans for the 
future, sailed for China, and died on the passage. 

But his plans were taken up by his followers. Priests 
came, and Christianity obtained a foothold at this port. 
The Portuguese began to trade here at Nagasaki in 1558. 
A church was established, and several of the Japanese 
damios, or princes, embraced the Christian religion. The 
emperor was well disposed towards the missionaries. Two 
of the damios were sent to Europe as ambassadors to the 
Pope in 1582, at which time Christianity had made great 
progress in the empire. They were received at Eome with 
grand ceremonies ; there was great rejoicing throughout 
Christendom over the thought that the far East was wel- 
coming the Gospel, that the islands of the sea had stretched 
out their hands to God, and that prophecy was being ful- 
filled. It is stated that it was the custom of the priests 
to go through the streets bearing a cross, ringing a bell, 
and sprinkling holy water upon the crowd. Upon whom- 
soever a drop fell he was counted as a Christian, was 
made to believe that he had received the new religion, 
and was numbered among the converts. 

A new Tycoon came into power in 1587. He was a 
conservative, who held that Japanese should rule Japan, 
and that foreigners were of an inferior race. He ordered 
them to quit the country. The people began to throw 
stones at them in the streets, to jostle them off the side- 
walks, and occasionally a Japanese gentleman of the con- 
servative party manifested his superiority by ripping up 
or cutting down a priest. The government began to hang 
native Christians on trees, impaled them on stakes, or 
pitched them down precipices. The first martyr was ex- 



APPROACH TO NAGASAKI. 423 

ecuted in 1598, but the Jesuits were, not wholly driven 
from the country till twenty-two years later. In 1620, 
when the Mayflower was making her lonely voyage 
across the Atlantic, the Tycoon drove the last Jesuit 
priest from the empire, and a few years later the Dutch 
traders, who had made no efforts to introduce a new re- 
ligion, were confined to the small island in front of the 
town of Nagasaki, called the Desima. Through them the 
Japanese informed themselves of what was going on in 
the world, at the same time keeping themselves wholly 
secluded. 

* The chief islands forming the Japanese group are four 
in number, — Yesso, Mphon, Kiusiu, and Sikok. In ad- 
dition there are several hundred small islands, some in- 
habited, others the resort of innumerable waterfowl. The 
two southern islands, Kiusiu and Sikok, are most fertile, 
and have a dense population. Being situated between 
the thirtieth and fortieth parallels, the climate is variable, 
cooler than that of the United States in the same lati- 
tude in summer, and warmer in winter. Europeans re- 
siding in China, worn and wasted by hard work, come to 
Nagasaki to recover their strength and to revel in the 
beauties of the mountain scenery. 

The entire group of islands is of volcanic origin. It is 
easy to trace here and there the various strata of lava 
which ages ago flowed down the mountain-sides. Earth- 
quakes are frequent, and the people rarely build their 
houses more than one story high on that account. Though 
the hand of man has accomplished but little in the way 
of adornment, Nature has done so much that we are 
charmed with the prospect before us. 



424 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 



CHAPTEE LIII. 

WESTERN JAPAN. 

THE city of Nagasaki is located on the eastern shore 
of the bay, and is spread out upon a level plain 
with its suburbs rising upon the slopes of lofty hills. 
Though the houses are low and of uniform architecture, 
though the temples have no domes, minarets, or spires, 
their situation upon the hillsides, surrounded by groves, 
gives a pleasing picture to the scenery. 

A few ships swing at their anchors, — American, Eng- 
lish, and French vessels of war, three Japanese gunboats 
and native junks ; but the mercantile activity which 
characterizes Shanghae is wanting. 

The population of the city is estimated at one hundred 
thousand. The streets are wider than those of Chinese 
cities, cross at right angles, and are well paved, though 
carts or carriages never pass through them. Every- 
thing is carried by coolies. The city is divided into 
wards, having gates, which are closed at night as a 
precaution against riot. 

That the people are hardier than the Chinese is our 
first impression. They are taller, have a more manly 
physique, and are less mildly tempered. The second 
impression is that they are lower in morals. 

A shopkeeper invites us to enter his establishment. 
The front part is his shop, wide open by day, but 
closed by wooden shutters at night. We accept the 
invitation, and look at his work-boxes, tea-trays, lacquered 
ware, fans, and carved ivory. A movable screen sepa- 
rates the shop from the parlor. A few low stools, pic- 



WESTERN JAPAN. 



425 



tures by Japanese artists on the walls, pots and pans, 
teacups, saucers, bowls, and plates of nice porcelain, 
mats which will be spread on the floor at night for bed- 
ding, are the chief articles of furniture. 

We are in the presence of the shopkeeper's wife and 
daughter, the last a young lady about twenty years of 
age. Her only clothing is a skirt reaching from the 
waist to the ankles. The- mother is well dressed in a 
long flowing robe. She bustles about, sets the stools 
aside, disappears behind a screen and reappears with a 
stuffed chair, and with many a smile and nod and wink 
motions us to the seat, then herself crouches upon the 
floor at our feet, shows us photographs of Nagasaki and 
other works of art. 

She has long black hair, combed, braided, and taste- 
fully adorned with artificial flowers, a pug nose, high and 
prominent cheek-bones, a broad forehead, small black 
eyes, a tawny complexion with a tinge of peach-bloom 
on her cheeks, a 'homely mouth, and a red lip. Not 
many artists would give such features to their ideal 
of perfect beauty, but for all that there is a pleas- 
ing expression of 
the countenance 
when animated, 
or when she 
smiles ; but when 
the smile be- 
comes a laugh, 
and the lips part, 
we see that her 
teeth are black as 
jet. 

She has been 
taking a cup of 
tea. The hot wa- 









PREPARING FOR A SMOKK 



426 



OUR NEW WAY EOUND THE WORLD. 



ter is still steaming in the kettle, and the little porcelain 
pot and diminutive cup are on a box by her side. She 
is preparing for a smoke. 




DEVOTED LOVE. 



This lady has plucked out every hair of her eyebrows. 
Thereby hangs a story. Years ago a beautiful princess 
of Japan, in order to show her devotion to her husband, 
blackened her teeth and pulled out her eyebrows, making 
herself hideous in the sight of all gallants, and so all 
loving wives follow her example. 

We see a family bathing in their own house, not 
taking the trouble even to place a screen between 
themselves and the open door. Turning up a side 
street we come to a public bath-house, where men, 
women, and children have laid aside their clothing, and 
are bathing together with as much freedom as a flock 
of ducks ! 

We meet now and then a lady of the upper class, wear- 
ing a blue silk dress, or of flaming yellow or red, with 
under-dress of other bright colors, flowing sleeves, em- 



WESTERN JAPAN. 42? 

broidered with gold, wearing yellow or crimson slippers, 
her hair neatly plaited, set off with pinks and marigolds, 
ear-drops of jade-stone, a costly fan, its sticks of ivoiy 
elaborately carved, adorned with beetles, bugs, and flies 
of bronze or pearl. 

The handsomest buildings in the native city, like those 
described by Kempfer two hundred years ago, are now 
devoted to immoral uses. The keepers of the establish- 
ments purchase girls of then.' parents, lodge them in good 
apartments, teach them to dance, sing, play, or write, 
and instruct them in domestic economy. It is said that 




JAPANESE LADIES. 



a girl in such an establishment has a far better chance 
of obtaining a husband than those who are not thus edu- 
cated, — a statement which we are loath to credit. But 
society in Japan presents a remarkable contrast to other 
Eastern countries in the education of women. Here boys 
and girls of the poorer classes are taught together in vil- 
lage schools. At the age of twelve or fourteen the boys 
are put into schools by themselves, while the girls are 
taught domestic economy. The education is not of a 
high order, but far better than utter ignorance, as in 



428 



OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



India. G-irls belonging to the higher classes practise 
music, painting, and the composition of poetry. 

Strange contrasts ! There is no disgrace to the girls in 
leading such a life before marriage, but their parents are 
debarred from good society, while the keeper of the estab- 
lishment is looked upon as a vile fellow. The sense of 
modesty, as understood by civilized nations, seems to be 
wholly wanting. In Egypt and India modesty consists 
in covering the face, even though the body may be ex- 
posed ; but in Japan it is not immodest to expose face and 
body alike. There is plenty of room for civilization and 
Christianity to develop their power in this quarter of the 
globe. 

Xhe chief musical instrument used by the ladies is 

somewhat like 

" David's harp of solemn sound," 

to quote from Dr. Watts, which had ten strings, while 
these have all the way from three to thirteen, which are 
stretched on a highly ornamented frame, lacquered and 
inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Minstrels saunter the 
streets and frequent the tea-houses, playing on harps, 

bamboo flutes, 
and flageolets, 
accompanying 
singers whose 
voices are 
pitched on a 
high key, and 
whose songs 
are wails in 
the minor 
mode. Their 
music is not 
so thunderous 
and ear-split- 




MINSTBELS. 



WESTERN JAPAN. 429 

ting as that of the Chinese, but is equally wanting in 
rhythm and harmony. 

They are more accomplished in painting than in music. 
Their mistakes in perspective are as amusing as those 
delineated by Hogarth. In a picture before us we see a 
boat in the foreground in which are several gayly dressed 
ladies, one of them holding an umbrella which shelters 
several vessels in a distant harbor, as well »as a large town 
surrounded by groves and gardens. The ducks and water- 
fowl sporting in the stream a half-mile away are nearly 
as large as the nearer sail-boats. 

In brilliant coloring the Japanese are unsurpassed. 
Boxes, screens, tea-trays, and books are highly and 
elaborately ornamented. The designs are rude attempts 
at landscape, with Fusiyama, the " matchless mountain " 
of the empire, which we shall see on the eastern coast, as 
a prominent feature. The stork, stretching its broad 
wings in flight, or wading by reedy marshes, is a fre- 
quent figure. It is the guardian bird of Japan, and is 
as affectionately regarded here as in Germany. 

We meet men wearing one long and another short 
swords in their belts. These fellows are called Yako- 
nins ; they are the retainers of the various damios, or 
princes, of the empire. They hold themselves in high 
esteem, and look upon foreigners as belonging to an in- 
ferior race. At the present time these gentlemen are on 
a rampage, being greatly exercised on the question 
whether Japanese shall rule Japan, or whether inter- 
lopers from the United States and England shall have 
social and political privileges. 

A" fanatical or drunken Yakonin ought to shake hands 
with " conservative " gentlemen of Texas and other 
Southern States. Several foreigners have lost their lives 
lately at the hands of these fellows. They attacked the 
English Minister, Sir Eutherford Alcock, at Yedo, in 



430 



OUK NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



1869. Admiral Eowan of the United States navy, then 
at Yokohama, ordered all the officers to carry their re- 
volvers when on shore, and if they saw a Yakonin draw- 
ing his sword to shoot him down instantly, for it is a 
rule with them never to unsheathe it except to strike 
down an enemy. The country was convulsed with civil 
war, and they were under no restraint. Conservatism 
has the same arguments here that it has in America. 
No political privileges shall be granted to foreigners. 
They shall have no social or political rights. 

We are accompanied in our stroll through the town 
by several fellow-passengers, and have a crowd following 
us, indulging their curiosity. The women are greatly 
amused when they discover the hoop-skirts worn by the 
ladies of our party. They test the springs, gaze at the 
mysterious framework in wonder, and then give way to 




,--? J tn\r--^- : 



I'HE MYSTERY OF CRINOI.TNB:. 



THROUGH THE INLAND SEA. 431 

boisterous merriment. To them it is undoubtedly the 
most ridiculous arrangement in the world. Undoubtedly 
they think that the women of America must have very 
strange ideas of dress to wear such complicated ma- 
chinery. 



CHAPTEE LIV. 

THROUGH THE INLAND SEA, 

NEVEE was there a lovelier morning than that which 
dawns upon us as we steam out of the harbor of 
Nagasaki and up the western coast of the island of Kiu- 
siu. Clear the air and calm the sea. We look upon an 
ever-changing panorama, — pebbly beaches, sunny hill- 
sides, whitewashed cottages, blooming gardens, deep bays, 
dotted with white sails ; rocky islands, with beetling cliffs ; 
scarped rock, sharp needles of granite, worn by the 
waves ; sheltered coves, where the fishermen moor their 
boats ; lofty mountains in the distance, — a picture of sur- 
passing beauty. 

Ten miles north of the entrance to Nagasaki harbor we 
behold a wonderful specimen of natural architecture, — 
two granite columns, one hundred and fifty feet high, at a 
guess, and fifty feet apart, rugged, sharpened at the top, 
with a great boulder of a thousand tons, chucked like a 
wedge between the pillars, forming a stupendous gateway 
through which a fleet of fishing-boats and schooners, or a 
yacht squadron, might sail in grand procession. How 
came it there ? By what volcanic upheaval was it tossed 
high in the air, to fall like a wedge into its position ? Or 
did it tumble from a mountain cliff which has been worn 



432 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



away by the waves ? It is so remarkable, so immense, so 
perfect a gateway, that we are all but ready to exclaim : 
It is not Nature's architecture, but the handiwork of the 




SCENERY OF THE WESTERN CCAS1. 



Titans and Cyclops, — the fabled, strong, and mighty 
monsters of mythological era ! But there is nothing of 
man's work, nothing of legend and fable,, so wonderful 
as the handiwork of God. 

While enjoying the beauties of this coast, we meet a 
Japarese steamer, the Sir Harry Parkes, bearing the flag 
of the full moon, the national ensign. This steamer 
sailed from Nagasaki three weeks ago, with four hundred 
native Christians on board, who had been arrested, thrown 
into prison, put on board this vessel, and carried off, no 
one knows whither. There are stories that they were 
taken out to sea and thrown overboard ; but the more 
probable supposition is, that they have been sent to the 



THEOUGH THE INLAND SEA. 433 

mines, away north, on the island of Yesso. They will be 
worked hard, poorly fed, and subject to cruel treatment. 
Their only crime is that they are Christians. 

What . vitality there is in a religious idea ! Through 
the three hundred years which have elapsed since the 
expulsion of the Jesuits Christianity has lived in "the 
empire. Persecution has failed to root it out. 

One of our passengers is the Catholic prelate of Japan, 
on his way to Yokohama, to see the French ambassador 
in regard to the persecution. He informs us that there 
we probably one hundred thousand Christians in the em- 
pire. He is already in communication with twenty thou- 
sand. They have held their faith in secret, have met in 
the mountains, in caves and dens, maintained rude forms 
Of prayer and ceremonies of worship. The present perse- 
sution is instigated by the priests of Buddha. One of 
fchem last year visited Nagasaki, called upon Mr. Verbeck, 
&, Dutchman, who is trading there, stayed with him 
awhile, obtained some information in regard to Christian- 
ity, and then disappeared. Not long since a pamphlet 
was published, inciting hostility to the new religion. Mr. 
Verbeck at once recognized it as the production of the 
priest who had been under his instruction. 

Mr. Verbeck, who is a Protestant, and the French 
bishop, botl are of the opinion that idolatry is dying out 
in the empire. There is a great desire on the part of the 
people to acquire the English language. In all of the 
cities open to foreign trade there are many men and wo- 
men who can speak English. They have found out that 
it is of great advantage, as they can earn more money, 
and it gives them wider influence. Acquaintance with 
foreign languages and ideas, and an enlargement of men- 
tal vision, leads them to discard the worship of idols. 
They discover that the priests are ignorant and lazy, liv- 
ing upon the people, and doing no good. In the country 

19 SB 



434 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

the priests have great influence, but in Nagasaki they are 
looked upon as burdens upon the community. 

Our course for one hundred and fifty miles is along the 
western shore of Kiusiu. The climate of this region is 
variable, but far more healthy than the corresponding 
coast of China. The country is well wooded, owing to 
the care taken by the government to preserve the forests. 
People are not allowed to cut down a tree in this part of 
the empire until they have planted one to take its place. 
Extensive forests exist in the northern islands, where 
there is a scanty population, and the law is not enforced 
in that section. The bamboo, pine, and oak grow side by 
side, and present by their great contrast a pleasing feature 
in the landscape. 

The approach to the Straits of Si-mo-na-sa-ki, through 
which we reach the Inland Sea, is marked by a great 
number of junks and boats under sail. It is the great 
water-way of the empire, the passage between Niphon 
and Kiusiu. We have been sailing north, and now at our 
right is the island of Siro-sima, distinguished by rocks 
which rise perpendicularly three hundred feet from the 
sea, seamed, scarred, worn by the waves, crumbled by 
storms and shaken by earthquakes. We look into deep 
caverns, and hear the surf thundering in the grottos. 
Thousands of sea-fowl have their homes in the clefts. 
Passing on, rounding the island of Eokuren, a Paradise of 
itself, clothed with trees, shrubs, long rank grass, flow- 
ers of every hue, we enter the narrow straits and sail up 
a tortuous channel. 

On the southern main-land is the town of Kokura, 
where a silver stream falls into the sea after leaping and 
laughing its way from the mountain summits, which rise 
four thousand feet above us. The hillsides are beautifully 
terraced, set off with shrubbery, groves, orchards, houses 
in sunny nooks, and a cemetery with white headstones. 



THROUGH THE INLAND SEA. 435 

People from the town are strolling along a sandy beach 
and hundreds of boats are dancing on the waves in a 
sheltered cove. 

We sweep past numerous islands, green gems on the 
glassy deep, and catch glimpses of pleasant homes, — 
snug cottages almost hid from sight by the dense foliage 
of overhanging trees. 

The Japanese do not worship their ancestors, as is the 
case with the Chinese, but the teachings of Confucius 
have left a deep impression on this people. A modified 
form of the Confucian religion prevails to some extent. 
Buddhist and Sinto worshippers alike reverence the dead, 
and the most charming spots are selected on the hillsides 
for their places of sepulture. The graves are carefully 
tended. 

A funeral procession, the mourners in white robes, is 
winding up a narrow path. The Japanese deem white 
the most appropriate color to be worn while in mourning. 
The dead are usually buried at sunset. Two pieces or 
joints of bamboo are placed before the grave to hold the 
flowers, which are brought fresh from the garden every 
morning, and flowering plants and shrubs are planted 
in the cemeteries. In this respect the Japanese show 
a higher degree of refinement than any other Eastern 
nation. 

The higher classes do not appear in public during the 
period of mourning. They give no feasts, entertain no 
company, and only are seen while decorating the graves 
with fresh flowers. The bridal veil is the shroud of mar- 
ried women at their decease. If a husband or wife dies, 
space is always left in the cemetery for the surviving 
partner. 

The Sintoos believe that the spirit at death passes at 
once to a place of happiness or misery, to be punished 
or rewarded according to the deeds of the present life. 



436 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

According to Chinese history, the Sintoo religion pre- 
vailed before the children of Israel received a code of 
laws on Mount Sinai. If this is true, the doctrine of 
rewards and punishments in the future life was not 
any monkish idea introduced from Europe. A thousand 
years before Plato discoursed of the immortality of the 
soul, the philosophers of Japan talked of the future life. 
Conscience entered into their philosophy. Death was 
not sleep. They had 

" That dread of something after death." 

In the month of August a festival is held, during which 
the spirits of the dead are supposed to revisit the earth. 
Tombs, trees, gardens, houses, are illuminated with lan- 
terns of every hue. It is a joyful night. 

" Then the forms of the departed 
Enter at the open door." 

On the second evening the spirits return to their shad- 
owy land, which lies somewhere beyond the sea. With 
much ceremony, little paper boats are borne to the sea- 
side, lighted tapers placed within, and the tiny craft 
launched upon the waves. 

The straits are not more than half a mile wide, and at 
this narrow crossing we see the Tokaido, or imperial high- 
way of the empire, which extends to Tedo. Each damio 
keeps it in repair in his own territory. Tea-houses and 
inns are established at regular intervals. The road is 
twenty feet wide, built three centuries ago ; macadamized 
three hundred years before McAdam thought of using 
pounded stone for highways. 

Upon the northern side of the straits is the large town 
of Chofu, the capital of damio Choisiu. In 1864 he un- 
dertook to levy a contribution upon ships going through 
the straits, and fired upon the American bark Pembroke 



THROUGH THE INLAND SEA. 



437 



from the batteries which we see along the water, under 
the shade of the trees. The United States ship-of-war 
Wyoming, Captain McDougal, was at Yokohama, and 
came down to see about it. Choisiu had two gunboats 
at anchor in front of the town, and opened fire from them 
and from all his batteries. Captain McDougal steamed 
between the town and the gunboats, ran alongside the 
latter, sent them to the bottom and steamed back again, 
as if nothing had happened. This was in July, and in 
September, the damio still , being insolent, the allied fleet 
at Yokohama came down and silenced his batteries and 
brought him to terms. 




THE CANGO. 



The common mode of travelling, by the poor classes, is 
on foot or horseback. Ladies of the higher classes ride in 
the cango, borne by two coolies, as seen in the accom- 
panying illustration. The back is slightly inclined ; but 
as the space is contracted, the occupant is obliged to sit 



438 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

cross-legged, or with the knees in close proximity to the 
• chin. 

The damios and their wives are carried in the no- 
rimon, which is much like an East India palankeen. 
The roads which lead from the Takaido to the towns 
in the interior are mere paths, traversed by people on 
foot, or riding the small, kicking, vicious ponies of the 
country. 

We have entered the narrow passage, called the Inland 
Sea, which separates the island of Kiusiu from Mphon. 
It is rather a succession of broad sheets of water connect- 
ed by narrow straits. The Japanese word Nada means 
sea, and in sailing east we pass first through the Iyo-nada, 
then the Bingo-nada, the Harima-nada, and the Isumi- 
nada, so named from the damios whose districts border 
on the passage. 

We enter the Straits of Si-mo-na-sa-ki at sunset, and 
during the night our course is across the Iyo-nada. We 
see the dim outline of mountains in the distance. The 
waters are as calm and peaceful as a forest-sheltered 
pool. 

We are aroused from sleep in the early morning by 
the voice of the mate. " If you want to gaze upon 
the loveliest scenery in the world, now is your time," 
he says, with his lips to the key-hole of our state-room 
door. 

Eeaching the deck we behold the glories of the In- 
land Sea in the light of the approaching dawn. Our 
course is towards the rising sun. Before, behind, on 
either hand, and beneath us in the unruffled depths, 
we see the beauty of a thousand isles. Some of them 
are but specks on the water, — emerald gems in set- 
ting of polished silver. Others are of larger area, with 
whitened shores washed by the ebbing and flowing- 
tides. There are fields, forests, wooded hills, shaded 



THROUGH THE INLAND SEA. 



439 



ravines, and mountain cliffs, — a panorama painted by 
a Hand divine ! 

It is more than a panorama. Its loveliness iar surpasses 
all artistic skill. It is a palace, with court, hall, drawing- 
room, chamber, and corridor. But what conception of 
man can imitate such a design ! What artistic cunning 
can fashion in mullioned window, hooded porch, lofty- 
portal, by corbel or gargoyle, such beauty as that in 
the groves of pine and palm that crown the hills and 
adorn the slopes ! 

Or shall we liken it to a cathedral ? This narrow pas- 
sage between these two green islands, where the hills rise 




THE INLAND SEA. 



to the magnitude of mountains, is the western gateway ? 
We gaze entranced down transept and nave, into chapel 
and choir, up to domes, turrets, towers, and pinnacles, with 



440 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

such mural painting as never yet was attempted by old 
masters. 

What chancel, or oratory, or approach to high altar, so 
gorgeous as this sapphire sea, rippled with silver and 
flooded with golden light ! Comparison fails. We can 
only gaze entranced before the ever-changing loveliness. 
We dream of Arcadian scenes, and listen to hear, as 
Ulysses heard, the song of sirens on the shore, or fairies 
of the sea calling from the sylvan shades : — 

" Mariner, manner, furl your sails, 
For here are the blissful downs and dales, 
And merrily, merrily carol the gales, 
And the spangle dances in bight and bay, 
And the rainbow forms and flies on the land, 
Over the islands free ; 

And the rainbow lives in the curves of the sand. 
Hither, come hither and see ! " 

We gaze upon the changing views till eyes grow weary, 
wishing that all our friends might behold the indescriba- 
ble glories of this Inland Sea. 



CHAPTEE LV 

HIOGO. 



ALL day long we have been in sight of countless sails, 
— junks and fishing-boats, rudely constructed, with 
lofty quarter-decks and an immense amount of rudder. 
We have been steaming at the rate of eleven knots an 
hour, but have not for a moment lost sight of the junks. 
We count over five hundred under sail at once, while 
other hundreds are at anchor or drawn up in coves and 
under the lee of islands. The presence of such a number 



hiogo. 441 

of sailing craft is sufficient of itself to indicate a dense 
population. 

The shores are dotted with towns and villages, and the 
country is under high cultivation. The wheat and barley 
crops have been harvested ; the rice-fields are of the rich- 
est green, the stalks knee-high, and the crop will be gath- 
ered in season to be followed by turnips. > 

We are approaching the town of Hiogo, which is sit- 
uated on the southern shore of Mphon, about two hun- 
dred miles south of Yedo by land, three hundred and 
seventy by sea. It was opened to foreign trade in Janu- 
ary, 1868, under the treaty of 1858. 

It is located on the western side of the bay with a high 
mountain behind it. 

Nearing the harbor we see green fields, pastures, moun- 
tain ridges, ravines, groves, peasants' huts, and discern a 
forest of masts through the smoky atmosphere, steam 
past a martello tower of hewn stone, with cannon in the 
embrasures, and come to anchor amid a fleet of war ves- 
sels, — four American, three English, two French, one 
Prussian, and a half-dozen Japanese. 

This is the port of Osaka, one of the great cities of the 
empire, lying fourteen miles east of us, on the other side 
of the bay. The water is not deep enough to permit 
vessels to approach the city, and Hiogo has become the 
place for foreign trade. Osaka is the Venice of Japan, 
situated in a meadow, a river winding through it, besides 
being traversed by numerous canals. A gentleman who 
has visited the city says that there are over four hundred 
bridges across the river and canals. They are all of stone, 
and some of them of elaborate workmanship and fine ar- 
chitectural beauty. It has for a long time been a favorite 
dwelling-place of the damios, or princes, who have their 
palaces along the banks of the main river, each with its 
well-kept garden, with broad flights of stone steps extend- 
ing down to the water. 



442 CUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

There is no resemblance between this city and Venice, 
except in the means of water communication, — no such 
old palatial, imposing edifices as those upon the Grand 
Canal of the city of the Doges, no such wonderful temple 
as the Cathedral St. Mark's, with three thousand years of 
genius in its walls. It is a city of half a million inhab- 
itants, with five hundred temples. 

The inhabitants are largely engaged in the manufacture 
of cotton goods, silk, sugar, paper, oil, and products of 
flax. 

The tradesmen and mechanics have their mutual-aid 
societies, which have been organized for centuries. This 
feature of modern civilization — the brotherhood of man 
■ — is not wholly of Western origin. 

The country around Osaka is fertile and densely settled. 
Foreign merchants at Hioko are confident that a large and 
lucrative trade will spring up at this port, and they are 
already looking forward to the time when a railroad, run- 
ning along the sea-shore, will connect it with Osaka. The 
Tocaido passes through Hiogo. 

The climate is delightful, the harbor spacious and deep 
enough for the largest ships, and, being in the Inland Sea, 
is thoroughly protected from storms. It is only about 
thirty miles from Kioto, the capital of the Mikado, or 
Emperor. 

A brawny Japanese boatman takes us ashore, and we 
saunter along the streets, followed by a crowd, curious to 
see the ladies of our party. 

If we enter a shop, they gather at the door, blocking 
the street. Our ladies are looking for curiosities, but 
they themselves are the curiosities of the moment. A 
woman walking on pattens, and carrying a child on her 
back, gazes with laughing eyes and smiling face at the 
ladies of our party. Feminine curiosity is as marked here 
as at Nagasaki. 



HIOGO. 



443 



Avoiding the increasing multitude, we gain the sub- 
urbs of the town, pass up an avenue bordered by hedges 
and bounded by rice-fields, irrigated 
by water drawn from numerous 
wells. 

On our return we stop at a tea- 
house to refresh ourselves with a 
cup of Japanese tea. The proprietor 
is delighted to have his establish- 
ment patronized by foreigners, ar- 
ranges seats for us, brings out his 
best china, passes the cups around 
on a highly ornamented tray, fills 
them again and again from a porce- 
lain pot, smiles, grins, nods, and 
winks his pleasure, gives us all we 
can possibly swallow, and thinks 
himself well paid with four cents 
for twenty cups ! 

His tea-houses and gardens are 
hung with enormous paper lan- 
terns of red, green, blue, casting rainbow hues upon the 
people, who sit beneath the trees through the evening 
sipping tea, winding up with a glass of saki, — rice 
liquor, — and, since the foreigners came, with whiskey 
and brandy, that sets them whooping like Indians on 
the war-path. From this we see how rapidly they are 
advancing in civilization ! 

A walk of a mile brings us to a temple dedicated to 
the Goddess of Agriculture, — not to the Ceres of the 
Grecian Pantheon, but to the Sun, which in Japan is 
regarded as a female deity. 

The temple has a tiled roof; but tiles, woodwork, posts, 
all are highly ornamented. A bell is suspended over the 
entrance. There is an altar on which the worshippers lay 
their offerings of fruit, flowers, or money. 




PLEASED TO SEE US. 



444 



OUE NEW WAY EOUND THE WOELD. 



The trees around the temple are hung with slips of 
paper printed with prayers, requesting the deity to give 




TEMPLE TO THE SUN GODDESS. 



a good yield of rice. The Hiogo traders, like their Chris- 
tian brethren in Western lands, have an eye to business, 
and have even stuck up their advertisements on the posts 
of the temple. One man informs the public that he has 
lime for sale ; literally, " stone fire-ashes," or ashes of 
stone. A worshipper is at his evening devotion walking 
round the temple, touching the bell at every circuit. 
Step, motion, action, look, feature, all indicate his zeal 
He goes as if on a wager. 

A woman enters the court, touches her forehead to the 
altar, commences her walk round, round, round again, 
touching the altar and the bell at every turn. 

Outside the gate, not three steps from the avenue, a 
priest is taking his bath in a tub, with no more sense 
of modesty than the stone post against which he leans. 

Here, as at Nagasaki, we see members of families bath- 
ing together in their own houses, or in the public bath 
with their neighbors. 



HIOGO. 



445 



The Japanese are affectionate. Among the higher 
classes, it is said, that men who have offended the laws 
have killed themselves by Harrkari, or " happy despatch," 
that the punishment of the offence might not fall upon 
their children and friends. It is a point of honor among 
high officials to rip themselves open if they incur the dis- 
pleasure of the Tycoon or Mikado. By f so doing, the 
family does not suffer, and not unfrequently a son is ad- 
vanced by having so honorable a father ! 

The Japanese are social in their habits, and visit not 
only the tea-houses, but the fields and woods in company 
to enjoy each other's society. Picnics are common at 
this season of the year. A short distance out from Hiago 
there is a small stream leaping down the hillside, with 
shady nooks along its banks, whither the Hiogans resort 
for recreation. 

The ladies take 
more care to pro- 
tect their faces from 
the sun than those 
of America. Their 
hats are more ca- 
pacious than the 
bonnets worn by 
our grandmothers. 
They might be used 
for market-baskets. 
They serve the 
wearers admirably 
in all weather, alike 
protecting from sun 
and rain. No won- 
der they laugh at 
the diminutive hats 
worn by our ladies. 




WELL PROTECTED. 



446 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



Luncheon-baskets are as common here as in England. 
It is not unusual to see a party of friends, with a lac- 
quered cabinet, containing plates, bowls, knives, teacups, 
and a basket filled with provisions, on their way to the 
woods or the hillside, where the entire day is passed in 
conversation, reading, singing, playing cards, and drink- 
ing tea and saki. Sometimes the saki turns the picnic 
into a row, and the return is very much like the going 
home from Donny brook Fair. 

The coolies of Japan are stout fellows, who stagger 
through the streets and along the highways with im- 
mense burdens. They 
wear bowl-shaped hats, 
and are better dressed 
than the same class of 
laborers in China. They 
are noisy while at work, 
and very savage in a fight. 
If we wish them to hurry 
their pace while riding in 
a cango we shout, " Jigger ! 
jigger ! " which is equiva- 
lent to saying, Hurry up ! 
The distance from Hiogo 
to Yokohama is three hun- 
dred and fifty-five miles. 
Our course for eighteen 
miles is due south, then 
rounding a sharp point 
of land we are on the 
Pacific Ocean, running up 

PORTER. ° L 

the eastern coast. The 
land rises abruptly from the sea. The hills are as green 
as those on the western shore. The land is not so well 
cultivated, and the people not so numerous as in other 




HIOGO. 447 

sections of the empire. A gentleman on the steamer, 
who has been several years in Japan, assures us that 
the population of the empire has been over-estimated; 
that, instead of containing thirty millions, it probably 
does not contain more than eighteen or twenty. An- 
other gentleman puts the number at a still lower rate. 
This eastern section of Niphon is subject to earthquakes. 
We pass Simoda, the port opened to the ¥nited States by 
the treaty negotiated by Commodore Perry. A large por- 
tion of the town was shaken down and the harbor filled 
up by an earthquake in 1864. 

Long before reaching the entrance to the Bay of Yedo, 
Fusiyama, " The Matchless Mountain " of Japan, appears 
in view. It is sixty miles from the coast, yet the captain 
of the Costa Eica informs us that he has seen it when 
one hundred miles at sea, or one hundred and sixty from 
the mountain. 

It stands alone in a broad plain with an elevation 
of nearly fifteen thousand feet, rising in the form of a 
cone. It is an extinct volcano. Its last eruption occurred 
in 1707, and caused great destruction of property and 
life from the sudden overflowing of lava. Pilgrims toil 
up its rugged sides to pay their devotions at the tomb of 
Sinto, the great sage of Japan, who was buried there 
three hundred years before the time of Christ. He 
founded the religion which bears his name, and which is 
closely allied to Buddhism. It is the prevailing religion 
of the country. 

Off the entrance to the bay is Vrie's Island, named 
for an old Dutch admiral who sailed these waters when 
Holland was the only nation holding commercial inter- 
course with Japan. The island is volcanic, and we see 
a column of gray smoke ascending from the loftiest sum- 
mit. There has been no eruption of late years, but the 
surrounding country shakes from time to time, indi- 



448 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

eating that there are internal commotions not far distant 
from this vent-hole in the earth's crust. 

The entrance to the Bay of Yedo bears some resem- 
blance to the " Narrows " of New York. The strait is 
defended by earthworks, along the beach and upon the 
bluffs. The hillside batteries, if mounted with heavy 
guns, might almost command the channel 

A little village is nestled under the cliffs of the western 
shore, and a large fleet of junks are at anchor in front of 
the town. It is the place where all native craft bound 
to Yedo are inspected by the government officials. 

The bay is about thirty miles in length and twenty 
wide. Yokohama, our destination, is on the western 
shore, about twenty miles from the entrance. Pleasing 
views meet the eye as we approach the town, — villages, 
grain-fields, groves of pine, with Fusiyama lifting its 
crystal crown against an azure sky. Foreign ships mul- 
tiply around us, and at length we drop anchor amid a 
large fleet of war-ships and merchant-vessels flying the 
flags of nearly all nations. 



CHAPTER LVI. 

YOKOHAMA. 

YOKOHAMA is the great centre of foreign traffic in 
Japan. Its situation, only twelve miles from the 
capital, and in one of the richest portions of the empire, 
and its relations to San Francisco, Panama, and Puget 
Sound, on the western coast of America, give it great 
prominence as a commercial mart. 

There is excellent anchorage along the shore, though 



YOKOHAMA. 449 

when a heavy southern gale prevails, the ships in the 
harbor are somewhat exposed. The place first selected 
by the foreign powers for a port was Kanagawa, which is 
nearer Yedo, but the shallow water off the shore decided 
thern to locate the future port at the little fishing vil- 
lage of Yokohama. The fishermen had built their huts 
on a sandy plain, where they could draw up their boats 
on a smooth, hard beach. The plain was bordered on the 
north by a marsh. A creek, winding through the low- 
lands and coming out to the bay again, enclosed an area 
of about three hundred and forty acres, so that the village 
was situated on an island. South of the town, and be- 
yond the creek, are bluffs of yellow earth, from whence 
material is obtained for filling up the marshes. 

The island is in the form of a rectangle, and has a sea 
frontage of about a mile, along which the residences of 
the foreign merchants are erected. 

Although ten years ago it was so insignificant a place, 
it has now a population of about twenty-five thousand. 
At first the Japanese were afraid to settle so near the 
foreigners from whom they had stood aloof through all 
the past ; but the advantages to be derived from trade 
overcame their timidity, and the population has rapidly 
increased. 

The western half of the town is occupied by the for- 
eign merchants. It is regularly laid out, the streets 
crossing at right angles. The English and French have 
secured land on the bluffs, where military and naval hos- 
pitals have been erected. A regiment from India is en- 
camped on the hills. They were sent for by the English 
minister a short time ago to defend the place, while the 
civil war continues which is now being waged between 
the northern and southern damios. 

Two moles, which the Japanese call Hatobas, have been 
constructed, and a portion of the marsh filled up. The 



450 



OUR NEW WAY EOUND THE WORLD. 



improvements that have been made show great energy on 
the part of the foreign residents. 

Passing along the street we see a fire-engine ; its con- 
struction will be seen from the accompanying illus- 
tration. 




FIRE-ENGINE. 



The houses are built of wood, and, as at Nagasaki 
and Hiogo, are open at the front, with lower floors raised 
a foot or two above the ground, and are neatly carpeted 
with white matting. The shops are more tastefully ar- 
ranged than at Nagasaki. One shopman, after showing 
us the articles which he has for sale, kindly takes us 
to the rear of his establishment into a garden, neatly 
and tastefully laid out, adorned with bronzes, an arti- 
ficial grotto, fountains, flowers, shrubs, and twining 
vines. 

The finest bronzes are from the province of Couza, which 
lies in the interior. Some of them are inlaid with silver 
in arabesque designs, but the prices asked will probably 
deter most travellers from purchasing. Since the opening 



YOKOHAMA. 



451 



of the country to foreign trade everything has advanced 
in price. Articles of tortoise and ivory, elaborately 
carved, formerly were to be had at low rates. 

Passing into an adjoining shop, we find very good pho- 
tographs, taken by a native artist. The wife of the pho- 
tographer waits upon us, and is pleased when we purchase 
a picture of herself wearing a pannier, with her back 
hair neatly combed and skewered, as wifll be seen by the 
accompanying illustration. 
Panniers have been worn 
here from time immemo- 
rial ; and the ladies who 
sport them in the United 
States are following the 
fashions of Japan instead 
of Paris. 

The foreign trade of Yo- 
kohama is steadily increas- 
ing. It consists mainly of 
raw silk, silk- worm's eggs, 
tea, and lacquer- ware. The 
government has not favored 
an extension of the trade with foreign nations, looking upon 
it as a disadvantage. They do not desire the introduction 
of foreign goods, believing that it will drain the country 
of the precious metals. Though adopting this mercantile 
policy, the damios in power have spent large sums for 
foreign vessels of war, cannon, and military arms. Eng- 
lish and American ship-owners have done an excellent 
business in selling old steamers, several of which are 
lying ;n the harbor. 

Our use of the term " government," as applied to that 
of Japan, is liable to be misunderstood. Each of the great 
damios has his army of retainers and his ships of war, 
and gunboats, some of which did service as blockaders 




THE PANNIER. 



452 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

during the war, and others as blockade-runners, are owned 
by different damios, who have united their forces to main- 
tain their power. 

The government of Japan is unlike any other on the 
face of the earth. In some respects there is an approach 
towards the old feudal system of Europe. For a long 
while we have been in the dark in regard to the political 
status of the empire. The treaty negotiated by Commo- 
dore Perry was with the Tycoon, as also were all subse- 
quent treaties ; but last year the foreign ministers, after 
getting out of patience with the dillydallying of the 
Tycoon about opening the port of Hiogo, ascertained that 
he was not the head of the government. To understand 
the organization of the government, we must go back 
several centuries, to the time when the system was more 
feudal than at present, when there was an emperor, 
the Mikado, and leading princes or damios, each su- 
preme in his own district, but owing allegiance to the 
Mikado. There came a time when one of the damios 
obtained great power, became ruler of eight districts, and 
secured a revenue of forty million dollars per annum ! 
He became the executive officer of the empire, wielded 
all power, was in effect the head of the nation, while the 
Mikado became his dependant, was supported by him, 
obeyed the Tycoon, and signed such documents as he 
required. ISTo law or document was valid unless it bore 
the signature of the Mikado, — a fact which was not 
known when the treaties were negotiated. 

The Tycoon who first acquired this commanding posi- 
tion was of the Tokugawa family, and the law of succes- 
sion which was accepted continued it in the family, — 
each appointing his successor, and keeping the other 
damios under control, by compelling them to send their 
wives and children to Yedo, as hostages for their good, 
behavior. Yedo is the Tycoon capital, while the capita} 



YOKOHAMA. 



453 



of the Mikado is at Kioto, not far from the recently 
opened port of Hiogo. 

The present fight is between the North and the Sonth. 
The Southern damios, Satsuma, Choisiu, and Bizen, and 
one or two others, each of which have a revenue of two 
to three million dollars, determined to break down the 
Tokugawa family. Stotsbashi, the Tycoon who nego- 
tiated the treaties, 
did not obtain the 
signature of the 
Mikado to the trea- 
ties, and this was 
held to be an un- 
pardonable offence. 
The southern da- 
mios did not revolt 
from the Mikado, 
but with the Mika- 
do's banner above 
them waged war up- 
on Stotsbashi, who 
finally resigned, ap- 
pointing his suc- 
cessor from his own 
family. But the 
southern damios 
were not content 
with driving him 
individually from 
power, — their ob- 
ject only could be obtained by breaking down the family, 
and by taking the government into their own hands. 
They took possession of the Mikado, — who is but a boy, 
— issued their edicts at Yedo, and were o-oinp; on swim- 
mingly, when one of the powerful Northern damios, Idsu, 




STOTSBASHI. 



454 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

appeared in the field. He informed the Southern con- 
federates that there was to be no change in the law of 
succession. He rallied the other Northern damios, and 
bloody battles have been fought. 

Before Stotsbashi resigned, he fought the Southerners 
not far from Osaka, aided by some of the Northern 
damios ; but in the heat of the battle one of his allies 
went over to the enemy with all his force, and Stotsbashi 
was utterly routed. He fled to his castle at Osaka, then 
on board the United States man-of-war the Iroquois, 
appointed his successor, and delivered himself up to the 
Mikado. The Southerners confiscated his immense es- 
tates, sent off his relatives into the South, and had things 
all their own way at Yedo. Then it was that Idsu ral- 
lied the Northern damios. 

An immense amount of military supplies have been 
sold to the contending parties, — Enfield and Spring- 
field rifles, breech-loaders, revolvers, rifled cannon, shells, 
and solid shot. Each party has its navy, — steamers 
sent from England and the United States, for which the 
Japanese have paid round sums of money, and which in 
a short time will be useless hulks. 

It is not a war in which the people are interested ; they 
care very little about it. History is repeating itself. It 
is like the dispute between York and Lancaster, or the 
old struggle of France as to which party shall have the 
Dauphin. It is also a question of the supremacy of 
climate, race, and blood. The Southerners are from a 
sunny clime. They have tropical blood in their veins^ 
— a mingling of the blood of the inhabitants of the Cen- 
tral Pacific islands with that of the aboriginals of the 
empire. The Northerners are from a vigorous clime ; 
they face the cold wintry winds which sweep down the 
sea of Ochotsk from Kamtchatka. 

The Tokugawa family came into power about the year 



YOKOHAMA. 455 

1128, and have retained it to the present time, though 
there have been several revolutions. What royal family 
in Europe can boast of such a duration of power and priv- 
ilege, or show an annual revenue of forty million dollars ? 
Surely there are some wonderful things about this country, 
of which we know as yet very little. 

To the botanist the flora of Japan presents an interest- 
ing variety. Camelias and azalias are common, as well 
as a species of pine, resembling the stone pine of Italy, 
but here taking the form of an umbrella. The Japanese 
are experts in floriculture. They have produced many 
varieties of ilex, and other plants of the same order. The 
florists and botanists of the United States will be able to 
obtain new variegations from the gardens in the vicinity 
of Yokohama and Yedo. 

There is not much to be seen in the vicinity of Yoko- 
hama, but an excursion of fifteen miles will take us to the 
ancient city of Kamakura, one of the sacred cities of the 
empire, containing a hundred temples. It was the capi- 
tal of the empire seven centuries ago, but since the 
removal of the Tycoon to Yedo it has dwindled to an 
insignificant place. 

Though some of the temples are in ruins, and others 
closed, there are objects which will interest the tourist 
who has time to make the excursion. 

The road winds through a fertile valley, amid green 
fields and shady groves. There are frequent villages and 
tea-houses where refreshment may be obtained. 

The old city is located in a charming valley ; and the road 
leading to it is often thronged by pilgrims going to or re- 
turning from the sacred shrines. It was made the Miaco,. 
or capital, of the empire in 1185, by a tycoon named Yo- 
ritomo, one of the heroes of Japan, though his heroism 
consisted mainly in bearing down all opposition and hav- 
ing things his own way. Under his rule and that of his 
successors it became an opulent city. 



456 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Civil war in this country is as chronic as it was in Europe 
under the feudal system. In a struggle for power between 
the Northern and Southern damios which occurred in 
1333, Yoshisata, the damio of the province of Smitske, 
conquered the city, put a large number of the inhabitants 
to the sword, set fire to the wooden buildings, and pulled 
down those of brick and stone. From that time to the 
present it has been a ruin. 

At the present day Kaniakura does not differ from 
Japanese villages in general, except in the wideness of 
some of its streets, — vestiges of the original plan of the 
old capital, — its sacred buildings and traditional associa- 
tions. 

The various temples and shrines — more than a hun- 
dred in number — are distributed widely over the plain, 
but the largest and most imposing of them all is the 
Hachiman, erected in honor of a deified hero, who is 
adored by the military class. It is approached from the 
south by a straight and wide avenue. The temple is en- 
tered through the gateway of the " two kings," who are 
represented by huge dilapidated wooden figures, with 
bows and arrows for weapons. A large bronze bell is 
suspended in one corner of the court. It has a rich 
tone ; and when the air is still, its reverberations are 
heard floating over the calm waters of the distant bay. 
The numerous temples of Kamakura are mainly of wood, 
strongly built, and variously adorned, especially the gate- 
ways and cornices, with carvings representing fish, birds, 
flowers, and dragons. The images and figures when new 
were covered with gilt, but the gold has become dim, and 
the colors of vermilion and purple have faded to a dingy 
brown. 

About a mile southwest of Kamakura is the famous 
statue Dia-boots, or the Great Buddha, in a grove of bam- 
boos, oaks, and camelias. It is one of the most remark- 



YOKOHAMA. 457 

able works of art in the world. It was erected in the 
twelfth century, while the city was the capital. When 
Kamakura was destroyed, no damage was done to the 
temples or idols. 

This great prophet is represented as sitting cross-legged 
in the position usually taken by the people of the East, 
who prefer sitting on the floor rather than in chairs. The 
statue occupies a position which, like the colossal figure 
representing Bavaria at Munich, shows it off to the best 
advantage. It is approached by an avenue leading by a 
flight of stone steps to a platform of the same material 
about four feet high. The figure, which sits upon this 
granite floor, is about fifty feet high. It is constructed 
of bronze plates, so closely united, and presenting so 
even a surface, that the joints cannot be detected with- 
out considerable scrutiny. The circumference of the 
hody is ninety-eight feet, its nose three and a half feet 
long, the ears six and a half, and the other features in 
proportion. The head is covered with curls, of which 
there are eight hundred and thirty. The countenance is 
of a sleepy cast, representing Buddha in mournful medi- 
tation. The interior is hollow, and contains small images 
of Buddhist saints. Many of the idols of Japan are rep- 
resented with glories encircling their brows, like those so 
often seen in Eoman Catholic churches, and it is probable 
that the idea was borrowed from the Jesuits. 

The neighborhood of Kamakura abounds with temples, 
which are surrounded by gardens, and a visit to the local- 
ity will well repay any one who may have time to make 
the excursion. 



20 



458 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

CHAPTEE LVII. 

YEDO. 

THE capital of Japan is the chief point of interest in 
the eastern section of the empire. It is a great 
disappointment that we are not permitted to see it, but 
all foreigners have been compelled to leave on account of 
the civil war. The English, French, and American min- 
isters have taken up their residences at Yokohama, where 
they will remain till the conflict is over. We are com- 
pelled, therefore, to rely upon gentlemen who have resided 
in Yedo for a description of the city* 

It may be reached by land or by water. The last- 
named mode is the easiest ; but a ride on a Japanese pony 
over the imperial road will enable one to see the coun- 
try and the people. 

Permission to visit the city of the Tycoon must be ob- 
tained through the consul at Yokohama. A guard of Yako- 
nins, if desired, can be secured. These soldiers are re- 
tainers of the damios. They wear two swords, and are 
bloodthirsty fellows, who, if they were to take offence 
at us, would not hesitate to cut off our heads ; but if set 
to guard us will be faithful to their trust, and decapitate 
any one who offers insolence. With a squad of them 
for a guard, and mounted on one of the tough ponies of 
the country, the traveller bound for Yedo will have a 
delightful ride up the Tocaido. 

* Yedo means " river door." It is situated at the head 
of the bay at the mouth of the " Great River," although 
in the United States it would be classed as an insig- 

* The foreign ministers have now, May, 1869, returned to Yedo. 




DAMIO AND ATTENDANTS. 



YEDO. 



459 



nificant stream. The main portion of the city is built 
on the western bank, but there is a large suburb on an 
island called Hondjo. 




P.ACiEXC 



THE EASTERN SHORE. 



' The island is connected with the main-land by four 
wooden bridges, firmly though rudely built. The river 
is a tidal estuary about one thousand feet wide, in which 
numerous small boats and junks are moored. 

The imperial road as it approaches the city becomes 
the O-to-ri, or Grand Street, upon which are numerous 
shops. Crossing a creek, one will find the residences of 
the English and French legations on the left, and a little 
beyond the palace of Satsuma. The residence of the 
American minister is still farther on. 

There are no hotels in Yedo, and a visitor will be 
under the necessity of putting up with such accommoda- 



460 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

tions as are found in the tea-houses. As yet liberty has 
not been granted to foreigners to reside, outside of the 
legations, but the restrictions doubtless will be removed 
upon the revision of the present treaty. 

Yedo proper is divided into three parts, — the Siro, or 
Castle ; the Soto-Siro, or Outside of the Castle ; and the 
Midzi, consisting of the town and suburbs. 

The Castle is a city by itself, containing the palace of 
the Tycoon, the residences of the three brothers of the 
emperor, the members of the council of state, and of 
about twenty of the high damios. That portion of the 
Siro which contains the imperial palace is surrounded 
by a high wall and several canals, which the public are 
not allowed to pass. 

These royal residences have none of the magnificence 
of the palaces of Europe, none of the comforts of our 
own houses. A palace in Japan would be considered 
rather a mean affair by most Americans. The man who 
earns his daily bread by driving the plane or using the 
trowel, and who goes home to a plainly furnished cottage, 
to a table spread with such food as our mechanics pro- 
vide for themselves and families, who lies down upon a soft 
mattress at night, has far more comfort in life than those 
princes of the empire, who sit on the floor at meal-time 
and make it their couch during the night, with only a 
mat for a bed, and a wooden block for a pillow. 

These palaces have none of the " modern conveniences," 
but without and within are cheerless and uncomfortable. 

That portion of the city called the Soto-Siro is sepa- 
rated from the Siro by a canal, and from the island of 
Hondjo by the river. The canal is spanned by about 
forty bridges. Smaller canals intersect this portion of 
the city, which occupies an area of about five square 
miles. One of the bridges bears the name of Niphon 
Bass, or " Bridge of Japan," which is considered the 



YEDO. 461 

centre of the empire, — all distances on the imperial 
road being measured from it. This section contains a 
large number of houses which are occupied by the small 
damios and their retainers. The streets along the river 
are given to mercantile pursuits. There are five run- 
ning parallel with it, which are crossed at right angles 
by twenty or thirty others, forming altogether seventy- 
eight municipal districts, separated from each other by 
wooden gates that are guarded by the police, who in- 
stantly close them in case of a riot. 

This is the only portion of Yedo that is densely popu- 
lated. Here the tides of life flow from morning till 
night, but the other sections of the city are as quiet almost 
as a country village. The eastern suburb on the island, 
containing an area of seven square miles, is a retired 
locality. It is traversed by canals, which are the bound- 
aries of municipalities. In the western section, upon the 
streets leading to the bridges, are shops and warehouses. 
Farther eastward are residences of merchants, temples 
and palaces of damios. Each palace has a garden and 
pleasure-grounds attached, each temple its grove. 

The Midzi, or suburbs, contain an area of about twenty- 
four square miles, in which are palaces, scattered resi- 
dences of merchants, and temples. The entire area of 
the city is about thirty-six square miles, or as large as 
the townships laid out by the United States in the survey 
of the public lands. 

In boyhood we learned from our school geographies 
that Yedo was the largest city in the world, containing 
an estimated population of about three millions. But in 
superficial extent it is surpassed by London, while in the 
number of inhabitants it is excelled by that city. Pekin 
and Paris probably equal it. If Brooklyn and New York 
may be reckoned as forming the metropolis of the United 
States, as Hondjo is considered a part of Yedo, or South- 



462 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD, 

wark of London, then New York will rival the capital of 
the Tycoon. 

A large portion of the residents are retainers and ser- 
vants of the daraios, one half of whom by law must re- 
side at the capital. 

There are eighteen great damios and three hundred 
and forty-two smaller ones. Each has his followers or 
retainers. Satsuma, Bizen, and Chosu each have about 
ten thousand followers. Nearly all of the great chiefs 
have an equal number. The smaller damios have each 
about two thousand. The followers of the great damios 
always present may be set down at about ninety thou- 
sand, and those of the smaller chiefs at three hundred 
and forty thousand, — a total of four hundred and thirty 
thousand soldiers and servants. 

This at first view would seem to warrant the conclu- 
sions which geographers have arrived at, that Yedo is the 
largest city in the world, and that the population is from 
three to four millions. 

The most satisfactory estimate which we have seen 
in regard to the population of this capital may be found 
in a communication made to the North China Branch of 
the Asiatic Society. The writer resided at the capital, 
and had made a careful estimate. He gives the follow- 
ing summary : — 

Followers of great damios . . 90,000 

Followers of small damios . . • 342,000 

Imperial officials .... 150,000 

Priests ...... 200,000 

Residents ..... 572,000 



1,354,000 



But there is always a large floating population of pil- 
grims and country traders, estimated at about two hun- 
dred thousand. The most liberal estimate gives a mil- 
lion and a half. 





STREET IN DAMIO'S QUARTER. 



YEDO. 463 

The description given by a gentleman who lias long 
resided at Yedo * will enable the traveller to understand 
what Yedo is : — - 

" On arriving in the city itself, however, one is rather 
disappointed. The temples disappear behind the trees 
with which they are surrounded ; the palaces resemble 
scarcely anything better than large fire-proof warehouses ; 
and the dwellings of the merchants and other citizens, 
though extremely clean, are small, and look rather poor. 
There are no handsome shops, no grand establishments, 
no triumphal arches, no statues, no monuments ; in 
short, nothing of what constitutes the beauty of our 
Occidental capitals. The streets and quarters belonging 
to the damios are almost deserted. The mercantile quar- 
ter, though in it there is great animation, looks neither 
rich nor handsome ; and altogether there is not one street 
in Yedo which could in the least recall such streets as, at 
home, we expect to find in the capital of a great and 
powerful empire. When riding through the damios' quar- 
ter, one might easily fancy himself in a great and wealthy 
village, or outside the park of some rich proprietor ; and 
in passing through the mercantile district he might be- 
lieve himself in a manufacturing city, crowded with a 
poor population. Yedo, though not ugly, certainly does 
not deserve the reputation for splendor and magnificence 
which has been given to it by some writers." 

The numerous temples in this great city, although very 
much like those at Nagasaki and Osaka in their general 
appearance, yet present sufficient variation to make them 
interesting to the traveller who wishes to become ac- 
quainted with the habits, customs, social and religious 
life of the Japanese. 

* Paper communicated to North China Branch of the Asiatic Society, 
December, 1864. 



464 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



CHAPTEE LVIII. 

FROM JAPAN TO CALIFORNIA. 

THEEE are no steamships afloat that for comfort 
equal those of the Pacific Mail Company, which 
ply between Hong Kong and San Francisco, touching at 
Yokohama. 

In the year 1865 Congress appropriated to a monthly 
steam line of first-class ships between San Francisco, 
Japan, and China, calling at the Sandwich Islands, an 
annual payment of five hundred thousand dollars for ten 
years for carrying the mails. The contract was awarded 
to the Pacific Mail Company, and the service began the 
1st of January, 1867, steamers leaving both ends of the 
route, — the Colorado from San Francisco via Honolulu, 
and the New York from Hong Kong. The Costa Eica was 
put on to ply between Shanghae and Yokohama, connect- 
ing at the latter port with the New York. The Costa 
Eica at that time made the trip round the southern point 
of Japan. 

It was discovered on the first voyage that the harbor 
of Honolulu was not deep enough to float vessels of five 
thousand tons' measurement, and authority was obtained 
for a change of the route. The service to the Sandwich 
Islands was cancelled in consideration of its extension 
through the Inland Sea, carrying mails to Nagasaki. 
Five round trips, including branch service, were per- 
formed the first year, quarterly trips at first, and then one 
every six weeks. Steamers now leave both ends of the 
route once a month. The monthly service began June 1, 
1868. Notwithstanding the great distance which these 



FROM JAPAN TO CALIFORNIA. 465 

ships have to run, about four thousand nine hundred 
miles, without stopping, and with little prospect of trade 
at first, the Colorado, the pioneer ship of the line, instead 
of losing one hundred thousand dollars the first trip, net- 
ted,, we are informed, some sixty thousand dollars over all 
expenses. From the start European travel and valuable 
light freight, such as bullion, metals, raw silk, spices, 
drugs, fine porcelain, teas, etc., have rapidly increased, 
and the line has proved highly remunerative, the net 
profits the first year on five round voyages being one hun- 
dred and forty-seven thousand seven hundred and seventy- 
two dollars and fifty-seven cents. 

The largest portion of the revenue is from Chinese pas- 
sengers, which are taken from Hong Kong to San Fran- 
cisco at forty dollars per head. Each eastward-bound 
steamer carries from one thousand to twelve hundred. 
The Chinese do not go to the United States to remain, 
but to make their little fortunes and return, and each 
westward-bound ship has seven or eight hundred on 
board. They are fed on rice, fish, pork, and beans. 

These steamships have the greatest capacity of any 
afloat. The one steamer Great Eastern alone is larger. 
They are side-wheeled, with great breadth of beam. Four 
of them, the Japan, Great Eepublic, China, and America, 
have each a measurement of five thousand tons. The 
engines have walking-beams, and are of fifteen hundred 
horse power, which may be worked up to twenty-five 
hundred. The cylinders are one hundred and five 
inches in diameter, with twelve feet stroke ; the diame- 
ters of the wheels forty feet, and the length of the shafts 
sixty-seven feet. The state-rooms are large and comfort- 
able, the cabins as wide and ornate in finish as the draw- 
ing-rooms of a first-class hotel. The hulls are of wood, 
and subdivided by bulkheads into water-tight compart- 
ments. Should fire break out, thirty-two streams of wa- 

20* DD 



466 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

ter from force-pumps, worked by the engine, may be put 
in play in two minutes. 

The size of these magnificent steamers gives them great 
steadiness. The rate of speed is the same as that of the 
Peninsular and Oriental ships, — nine and a half knots an 
hour. The time between Yokohama and San Francisco is 
twenty days. It might be made with ease in seventeen, 
but at a reduction of the profits of the company, — the 
increase of a mile or two per hour requiring a much larger 
consumption of coal. 

The action of the Pacific Mail Company in adopting 
side-wheel vessels, when all European companies are 
building screws, has been much criticised ; but the com- 
pany, looking to the transportation of Chinese emigrants 
as the chief source of revenue, chose a model which 
would give room for a large number of steerage passen- 
gers. 

The steamer which bears us across the Pacific, is the 
Colorado, with one thousand Chinese emigrants. The 
Great Eepublic hies in the harbor repairing a broken 
shaft ; and the China, twenty days from San Francisco, 
drops her anchor while the Colorado is preparing to 
depart. 

The parting gun is fired, and we move down the bay, 
but are brought to by a boat from Admiral Eowan's flag- 
ship. A search among the Chinese passengers brings to 
light four deserters, who are taken back to the fleet, and 
the steamer, resuming her course, passes the entrance to 
the bay, and strikes out into the broad ocean. 

We have forty first-class passengers, sixteen of whom 
are bound for Europe, as the nearest and cheapest way 
home. It was the beginning of the tide which set across 
the United States when the last rail was laid between the 
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 

Our course is straight across the Kuro Siwo, or " black 



FEOM JAPAN TO CALIFORNIA. 



467 



current " that flows up the eastern coast of Japan, about 
forty miles per day, runs to the Aleutian Islands, and sets 
even beyond them into the Polar Sea. 

The shortest line from Hong Kong to San Francisco is 
by the great circle which follows up this current, then 
curves eastward and southward down the coast of Oregon. 
But the sea is more boisterous in those, high latitudes, 
and the steamships strike a direct course from port to port. 
In making the westward trips they run about two de- 
grees south of those going east. 




WATER CURE. 



We have not space to speak in detail of the few in 
cidents of the voyage, the chief one which relieves the 
dull monotony being a scrimmage among the Chinese, 
which is suppressed by the water cure, as seen in the 
above illustration. 

Sailing vessels are not often seen. Day after day we 
look out upon the dreary expanse of water, with nothing 
to bound the sight. "We tell stories, wall?: the deck, doze 
awav the hours, read till weary, watch the sparkling foam 



468 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

at night, gaze upon the stars, and throw crumbs from the 
table to the keen-eyed waterfowl ever hovering along 
our track. 

The route of the steamers eastward carries them about 
nine hundred miles north of the Sandwich Islands. The 
nearest approach to land is when passing Hermes Island, 
which lies two hundred miles south of the course. It is 
of coral formation and uninhabited. The company have 
a small quantity of coal stored there, that it may be made 
available in case of emergency. 

Not till we are within twenty-four hours' run of San 
Francisco do we behold a sail. It is a pleasing sight. 
More thrilling is it to behold the dark outline of hills and 
the golden gateway of the continent, feeling that, though 
we are three thousand miles from home, we have reached 
our native land. 



CHAPTEE LIX. 

CALIFORNIA. 

\ X J HAT a delightful story is that of Aladdin and Ms 
V V wonderful lamp ! A gentle rub, a wish, and he 
had all his heart's desire. If he wanted a palace, it ap- 
peared. The advancement of the fortunate owner was 
from obscurity to renown, from poverty to affluence. 

This fiction has ever been the delight of the Oriental 
story-teller. Whether rehearsed beneath the tent of the 
wandering Bedouin in the heart of Arabia, or within the 
gardens of Damascus, perfumed by flowering almtmds and 
pomegranates, it is still a most charming romance. But 
here, where the golden gate of the American continent 




MINING IN COLORADO. 



CALIFORNIA. 469 

throws open its portals to the Orient, it is no longer a 
fiction, but a reality. 

It is but nineteen years since the shining particles of 
gold were discovered in the rivers of this State. The 
country then was but little better than a wilderness. 
There were wide plains, the pasture-grounds of herds of 
wild horses ; and snow-clad mountains, the j haunts of griz- 
zly bears ; forests, where Indians gathered their store of 
acorns ; and sand-hills, bare of vegetation. Through eight 
months of the year the clouds gave no rain. The sun 
shone fiercely during the summer months. The grass 
withered, the ground parched. It was a forbidding place 
upon which to real* a palace ; but here it is, the most won- 
derful edifice in the world ! 

It is not necessary that we should dwell upon the his- 
tory of California, — the discovery of gold on the Sacra- 
mento ; the rush of miners, around Cape Horn and across 
the Isthmus of Panama ; the fortunes made or lost, the 
crude society, the founding of the State, and its unpar- 
alleled growth, — for the events are recent, and every one 
remembers them. 

We have been looking at old pictures of Egypt, India, 
China, and Japan, covered with the dust of ages. In 
those lands, civilization is to-day very much as it has 
been through twenty centuries. Sluggish existence there, 
intense vitality here. 

We look upon a forest of masts ; tow-boats moving 
across the harbor, with great ships in their wake, like ants 
tugging at burdens thrice their size ; a city spread ovei 
the hills, house above house, steeple beyond steeple ; 
steam shooting upward ; tall chimneys, sending out 
clouds of smoke ; streets crowded with cars, omnibuses, 
coaches, drays, and alive with human beings. School 
children are studying their lessons. The screaming of 
the locomotive echoes over the hills. A dull roar, like 



4:70 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 

that of Niagara, falls upon the ear. Here are all com- 
forts and luxuries, — fruits, flowers, paintings, literature, 
science, art. Here is law, religion, liberty. What other 
age has produced so magnificent a structure ? Is not 
the reality more wonderful than any fiction of the 
Orient ? 

California is about seven hundred miles long and two 
hundred wide ; or, to obtain a better idea, it extends on the 
coast as far as from Boston to South Carolina, and its 
breadth is equal to New Hampshire and Vermont together. 
It has a population of nearly half a million. San Fran- 
cisco and Sacramento have a population of nearly one 
hundred and seventy thousand, leaving ■ about three hun- 
dred thousand for this vast area of country, — as 
large as New England,, New York, and Pennsylvania 
together. 

The development of this State is unparalleled in his- 
tory. Look first at the gold product, — eight hundred 
and fifty millions of dollars ! The total amount of coin 
in circulation throughout the world, before the discovery 
of gold in California, was estimated by political econo- 
mists at three hundred and twenty millions. We have 
the question of high prices, of everything we eat or wear 
or consume, already settled. Australia has produced five 
hundred millions. Fourteen hundred millions of gold 
have been added to the bullion of the world, and the 
result is a rise of price in everything. It is not the 
war, not greenbacks. It is the same in Europe, in 
India, China, Japan, as in the United States. California 
and Australia are at the bottom of all the mischief. 

The product of gold in the State, which formerly was 
sixty-five millions per annum, has fallen to about twenty- 
five, but the State is hot going backward ; on the con- 
trary, the development never was so great as at the 
present time. There is more wealth in the fertile soil 



CALIFORNIA. 471 

of the plains yet to be transmuted into golden grain, 
purple grapes, and fabrics of silk, than has been taken 
from the mountain gulches. The surplus wheat crop of 
1868 brought thirteen million dollars to the people. The 
export of all products amounted to seventeen millions. 
The grape-vines yielded three and a half million gallons 
of wine and four hundred thousand gallons of brandy. 
The sheep gave up about ten million pounds of wool to 
the shearers. The manufactures of the entire State are 
estimated at thirty million dollars per annum. The 
increase of valuation last year is estimated at twenty- 
one million. The assessed property, if equally divided, 
would give over four hundred dollars to each man, 
woman, child, Chinaman, and Digger Indian ! 

There seems to be no limit to the grape culture. Vines 
grow in the valleys and on the hills. Six or seven 
million gallons of wine will be produced this season. 
It has been discovered that a sea voyage gives a 
peculiar flavor to California wine, as it does to the 
wines of Europe. Not long since a gentleman in Berlin, 
who had received an invoice, invited his friends to a 
party, informing them that he had some hock from a 
new vineyard, which needed a name. He did not in- 
form them that it was from America till after they had 
unanimously pronounced it about the best they had ever 
tasted. The result is, that this State is sending wine to 
Rhine-land ! 

The cultivation of silk has become a profitable occu- 
pation. The cocoons produced here are said to be larger 
than those of China. One great advantage which Cali- 
fornia has over China, Japan, Syria, and Italy is in the 
steadiness of the climate. There are no extremes of 
heat and cold, no thunder-storms. The silk-worm, es- 
pecially when spinning or about to spin, is often de- 
stroyed by any sudden change in the electrical condition 



£72 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

of the atmosphere. California is singularly exempt 
from thunder-storms, the mulberry flourishes, the climate 
is equable, and all conditions, except the dearness of labor, 
are favorable for the cultivation of silk. 

Eailroads are being opened throughout the State,- — 
southward to the rich alluvial counties, eastward and 
northward to the mines in the mountains ; over the Sierra 
Nevada range, connecting the iron network of the western 
slope with the vast spider's web of the Union. 

But railroads, wine, wool, brandy, wheat, and fertile lands 
do not alone constitute a State. Education and religion, 
— the school-house and the church, — are vital elements. 
Without these the State would be a Sodom. The found- 
ers of this Commonwealth have not left them out. .The 
school fund already amounts to one million dollars, and is 
rapidly increasing. Every school district has its library,, 
its maps, charts, and globes. There is a State Board of 
Education and a Superintendent of Instruction. 

Climbing the steep hills over which the city is spread- 
ing its streets we reach a school-house where the voices of 
eight hundred girls, singing their morning songs, fall upon 
our ears. Their eyes are as bright, their cheeks as bloom- 
ing, their intellects as keen, as those of the older States. 
Transportation to this side of the Sierra Nevada has not 
diminished the iron or oxygen in the blood of the rising 
generation. San Francisco has the school system of 
Boston. Buildings, discipline, order, advancement, are 
similar. Another short walk brings us to the Lincoln 
School, where one thousand boys are obtaining the rudi- 
ments of knowledge. The building is an ornament to the 
city, and for elegance is hardly surpassed in the country. 
The cosmopolitan character of the community is seen in 
this school, the head-master of which is a Pole, sub- 
teachers Americans, the teacher of music an Irishman. 
English, Irish, German, French, Italian, and South Amer- 



CALIFORNIA, 473 

ican children are found in the classes. Notwithstanding 
the many nationalities, the grand machine moves without 
friction, accomplishing a mighty work for the millions of 
our land. 

The city has a Normal School, one for the education of 
teachers ; a high school for boys, one for girls, one Latin, 
eight grammar, twenty-four primary schools. In 1860 
the number of children in the city under fifteen years of 
age was 12,116 ; the census of this year gives 34,720, — an 
increase of about three hundred per cent. Twenty thousand 
of these are being educated at an annual expense of three 
hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The principals of 
the high schools have a salary of $2,500, gold; their 
female assistants, $ 1,200. The principals of the gram- 
mar schools, $ 2,100 ; sub-masters, $ 1,500 ; female assist- 
ants from $ 600 to $ 1,000. 

The course of instruction may not be as systematic in 
the United States as in Prussia, but it is less mechanical. 
The education received in Germany may be more thorough, 
but the American system is more elastic, and fits a 
scholar to adapt himself to any avocation. 

Our visit to the Lincoln School is on a day when the 
scholars take part in a general literary exercise. They 
have two debating societies, and the question for discus- 
sion is whether Congress was justifiable in executing 
Major Andre. The disputants are only from twelve to 
fourteen years old, and, considering that the subject 
embraces points of military and international law, and 
is of a high polemic character, it is well handled. The 
superintendent and a portion of the school committee 
are present, — gentlemen who are elected by strict party 
vote. This method of choosing the guardians of our 
schools is one of the worst of our political practices. 
Not unfrequently men are elected who are unfitted to 
hold the position. 



474 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

At the conclusion of the literary exercise, the members 
of the committee are called upon for speeches. 

There are no foreign visitors present to listen to their 
rhetoric and oratory ; but if there were, they would not be 
likely to go home with exalted opinions of the tendency 
of the American school system. One red-faced, burly man 
makes a grandiloquent speech, eulogizing Nathan Hale, 
the patriots of the Eevolution, and glorifying the American 
eagle. He does not lose the opportunity of throwing 
stones at England. It is a speech best characterized by 
the colloquial term " splurge," suitable nowhere, not even 
on the stump. The time has gone by for arraigning 
George III. and Lord North for their conduct during our 
struggle for liberty. It is neither politic, wise, nor honest 
to instil into the youthful mind animosity towards Eng- 
land or any other nation, especially for acts committed 
nearly a century ago. This is a speech by an individual, 
and we should be doing injustice to the community in 
allowing the impression to go abroad that all gentlemen 
elected to the guardianship of our public schools were 
given to making such harangues. " Whenever you see a 
head, hit it," is the rule at Donnybrook; and it is a poor 
rule that will not apply to America as well as to Ireland, 
England, India, or any other land. For this reason we 
speak just as freely of what we see in San Francisco as in 
countries the other side of the ^lobe. 

If this people have developed their material interests, 
they have not neglected the intellectual and moral. 
Churches abound. The pulpit oratory of San Fran- 
cisco is not surpassed by that of any city on the con- 
tinent. Sabbath schools flourish, not only in the city, but 
throughout the State. What other country has had such 
development ? What other has such a prospect for the 
coming years ? 

What other can exhibit such variety of products. — 



CALIFORNIA. 475 

animal, mineral, and vegetable, — wool and silk, gold and 
quicksilver ; wheat, wine, apples, pears, strawberries, 
melons, peaches, plums, oranges, lemons, olives, bana- 
nas ? Here is a commingling of temperate and semi- 
tropical climes. The country is exceedingly fertile, the 
climate delightful, the scenery enchanting. And yet, 
looking out upon the fields on these autumnal days, 
everything is uninviting, — grass dry and withered, the 
summer flowers dead, the leaves of the live-oaks gray 
with dust, the ground harder baked than the brownest 
loaf that ever came from a baker's oven, the brooks dry, 
the rivers shrunken to rivulets, and the entire country 
has a thirsty look as if at its last gasp. But the rain 
will be falling a few weeks hence : it will pour from the 
clouds in December and January, and the ground will 
drink its fill for another season. 

What a paradise this State would be to the poor 
wretches starving out a miserable existence in the cellars 
and garrets of our great cities ! Here are millions of 
acres waiting for the cultivator. This soil has untold 
riches for him who will but cast in the seed. We look 
forward to the time when all over this western slope of 
the continent there will be farm-houses, villages, cities, 
schools, churches, and all the elements of a civilization 
which has already gained a lofty elevation, and is mov- 
ing on to heights yet unattaiued. 



476 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



CHAPTEE LX. 

YOSEMITE. 

ABOUT one hundred and fifty miles southeast of San 
Francisco are those two wonders of the world, " the 
Big Trees " and the Yosemite valley. They are most 
easily reached by taking a steamer to Stockton, thence 
by stage up the San Joaquin valley. There are two 
routes by which Yosemite may be approached, but we 
would advise all tourists to go by Mariposa and return 
by Coulterville. The distance from Stockton by Coul- 
terville to Yosemite is one hundred and twenty-two miles ; 
by Mariposa, one hundred and forty-one ; but the first 
view of the valley on the Mariposa trail is one which 
never will fade from memory. It is worth a journey 
across the continent to behold it. 

It is a tedious and dusty ride over the plains. We 
cross the Stanislaus, Tuolomne, and Merced Eivers, all 
affluents of the San Joaquin. Nearly all the towns 
through which we pass have a seedy look. They were 
thriving places fifteen years ago, when the miners were 
tramping over these hills and valleys. Now we see 
only here and there gangs of Chinamen at work in the 
sluices. They pay four dollars a month for the privi- 
lege of mining in these gulches, which have already been 
worked over several times ; but each year brings new de- 
posits of gold from the mountains, and as the wants of 
these people are few, they make a good thing of it. . 

Mariposa is a county seat. The town is situated on a 
hillside sloping west, with a main street, a hotel, livery- 
stables, stores, shops, drinking-saloons, a court-house, small 




YOSEMITE VALLEY. 



YOSEMITE. 477 

church, a quartz-mill of one hundred stamps, its engine 
motionless, its doors closed, and an atmosphere of duL- 
ness pervading the place. The people sit in front of the 
saloons, when they are not inside taking a drink, living 
on expectations, just as they are in every other played-out 
mining town in the State. They are discussing the 
future. The railroad is coming ; crowds of tourists will 
be here ; the quartz-mill will start again ; new leads have 
been found ; better days are at hand. So they comfort 
themselves. 

Here we take saddle-horses, with a fifty-mile ride 
before us. The stage usually arrives early enough in 
the day to allow travellers to go on to Hatch's the 
same night. It is thirteen miles beyond Mariposa, in a 
dense forest of pines, which are six, eight, and ten feet 
in diameter, and some of them one hundred and fifty feet 
high. 

In such a forest our host has reared his home. Noth- 
ing can be more delightful than, after a brisk gallop over 
the hills, to wash off the dust at the spring pouring out 
its crystal flood in rear of the house, sit down to veni- 
son steak and mountain trout, with whitest bread and 
preserved fruits prepared by the charming hostess ; and 
then walk in the cool of the evening beneath the grand 
old trees, where the solitude is so profound, and there is 
such stillness in the air that you are startled by your own 
footsteps. 

Another thirteen-mile ride in the morning takes us to 
Clark's, whose nearest neighbor is Mr. Hatch. 

Mr. Clark is custodian of the Mariposa grove and Yo- 
semite valley. We find his home a long, low building of 
rifted logs, a sitting-room with a great fireplace, where 
the pitch knots blaze in the cool evenings, with shadows 
dancing on the walls, bringing back the dreams and reali- 
ties of boyhood days. Mr. Clark is out hunting grizzly 



478 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

bears among the mountains, with blanket and knapsack, 
to be gone a week, accompanied by another hunter. To 
these woodsmen there is no pleasure in the world to be 
compared with this. 

A party of Digger Indians have been out after a deer 
for our supper, and here they come with a fine buck. 

An old squaw has lost a pappoose, and has put on 
mourning by smearing her face with pitch ! To her it is 
as sensible and appropriate as it is for us to wear black 
crape or for the Japanese to appear in white. 

It is five miles to the grove of big trees, though there 
are trees all around us which would be called big in the 
East. We climb a mountain, reach an altitude of seven 
thousand feet, our horses all the way plunging their hoofs 
into granulated rock, hardly enough decomposed to be 
classed as soil. A few minutes' ride down the south- 
western slope, and we are among the monarchs of the 
forest. They do not seem to be at first sight very much 
larger than the surrounding pines, and it is only by 
measurement and comparison that we can comprehend 
their magnitude. The great elm on Boston Common 
is between six and seven feet in diameter, but here are 
six hundred trees, the smallest of which is twelve feet 
in diameter, and the largest thirty-three ! The measure- 
ments which give these diameters are taken one yard 
from the ground. Ten feet up they have diminished 
about one third, but above that hold their dimensions to a 
great height. One which fell many years ago, from which 
the bark has crumbled, is now thirty-three feet in diame- 
ter, and we can walk two hundred and fifty feel along 
that portion of the trunk which has not yet decayed. 
One board from this tree would be sufficient to wall in 
the side of a meeting-house. We might hew from this 
single trunk the hull of a ship of greater tonnage than 
the Santa Maria, in which Columbus crossed the oc^an ' 



YOSEMITE. 



479 



One larger even than the Mayflower of the Pilgrims ! 
Sit down and look at the monster called the "Grizzly 
Giant." It is ninety feet up to the first limb, which is six 
feet and four inches in diameter ! A limb one hundred 
and thirty feet from the ground has been broken off 
thirty feet from the body of the tree, and the fallen por- 
tion lies before us, eleven feet in circumference, or nearly 
four feet in diameter ! There are thirteen of us in our 
party, and we all ride into the burned cavity of one tree 
still standing, and sit there upon our horses, with room 
for six or eight more ! 

The illustration below, showing the cavity, is engraved 
from a photograph, and is not exaggerated, or in any 




ONE OF THE BIG TREES. 



respect changed by the artist from the original in oui 
possession; and yet this is a tree of medium size. 



480 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

We ride thirty feet through the hollow trunk of a 
fallen tree, as if it were a section of the Thames Tunnel, 
or of a tubular railway bridge ! 

There is another grove in Calaveras County where the 
trees are loftier than these, but of less circumference. 
There are several other groves along the western slope of 
the mountains. 

Our wonder at the magnitude of these trees becomes 
amazement when we look upon the cones produced by 
them, and find they are not larger than a hen's egg, 
and the seeds a mere speck. It would take a dozen of 
them to weigh down an apple-seed ! Yet, enfolded in 
this little feathery cell, which our gentlest breathing will 
send whirling through the air, is another forest monarch 
as mighty as these around us. Drop it in the soil, and 
hundreds of years hence it, too, shall be just such a won- 
der as this, within whose trunk men may make their 
home. How wonderful the chemistry of sunlight and 
air and rain, that from a tiny germ can build such 
a structure ! which can set its millions of pumps at 
work, forcing sap to the topmost twig, distribute it into 
the formation of fibrous bark, solid wood, and resin as 
clear as crystal, with sweet and fragrant odors ! There 
are mightier sermons in these trees than ever were uttered 
by human lips. Centuries ago they were just thrusting 
their spires from the ground. What tides of human his- 
tory have rolled away since then ! They do not set us to 
thinking of what man has been doing, but of what the 
Almighty has done. These are the survivors of an almost 
extinct flora, — of the period of mastodons, megatheriums, 
and of bullfrogs weighing a ton. They seem to be out 
of place in the flora and fauna of these times, and more in 
keeping with the extinct monsters of those primeval years. 
While they remain they will be the wonder of the world 

We cross the south fork of the Eio de los Merced, — 



YOSEMITE. 481 

the " river of mercy," — which has its source amid the 
gleaming snow-fields that lie around the loftiest peaks of 
the Sierras. Our path winds up the eastern side of the 
ravine till we reach a height of eight thousand feet, and 
from whence we look over the surrounding hills, covered 
with trees of such magnitude as can be found in no 
other portion of the world. What wealth of verdure 
in the cedars, as gigantic as those of Lebanon ; in the 
pines, two hundred feet high ; and in the slender balsam, 
whose silver-tipped leaves, waving above us, fill this tem- 
ple of Almighty God with health-giving odors ! The sun- 
shine falls through leafy boughs across our path. The 
swelling Mils lie all around us. We climb their slopes 
with such exhilaration of spirit as is experienced only 
when we leave the lowlands and rise towards heaven. 

We descend into deep dells, exchanging the bright sun- 
shine for twilight at noonday. These solitudes are never 
disturbed. Song-birds sing on the plains, but we do not 
hear the plaintive note of the sparrow or the cheerful 
whistle of Bob White in the depths of the forest. Quails 
have made their appearance round the dwellings of set- 
tlers in the valleys, but their swift wings never fan the 
air of these lofty regions. 

There are voices in these solitudes, but they are silent 
through the summer days. By and by, when storms 
arise, they will join in such harmony as never yet pealed 
from organ, orchestra, or choir, in temple or cathedral 
reared by human hands. How sublime to hear the diapa- 
son of the storm thundering in the distant valleys, and 
reverberating among the mountains ! There " the voice of 
the Lord breaketh the cedars." The lofty pines bend like 
reeds before the blast ! 

But all is calm and peaceful to-day, and, while our 
horses plod along the narrow trail, we indulge in such 
reflections as befit the hour. 

SI EG 



482 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

It is twenty-six miles from Clark's to the valley, and 
throughout the entire distance there is no house, nor do 
we hear the sound of the woodman's axe, or crack of the 
hunter's rifle, or low of herds upon the hills. There is 
not air enough to stir the quivering aspen. Amid such 
calmness and through such solitudes we approach the 
great chasm which the Almighty has cleft amid the 
mountains. 

The Yosemite Valley is situated on the western side of 
the Sierras, about one hundred and fifty miles southeast 
of San Francisco. The loftiest peaks of the range are 
in the immediate vicinity. Before coming in view of 
the valley, we catch here and there a glimpse of the ele- 
vations beyond. The summits are rounded masses of gray 
granite. They are composed of solid rock, rising above 
the general level like the domes of a mosque above an 
Oriental city. But it is unfitting for us to institute a 
comparison between this architecture of the Almighty 
with that of Damascus or Stamboul. 

The domes of St. Sophia and Suliman, so beautiful from 
the Bosphorus, so mean when we approach them, bear no 
more comparison to those of the Sierras than the card- 
houses reared by children bear to the city of London. 
The gray granite fashions itself into mansions, palaces, 
and cathedrals. Imagination pictures a celestial city 
above the clouds. The setting sun, falling on fields of 
gleaming snow, illumines its jasper walls and pearly 
gates with heavenly light. 

Suddenly we find ourselves on the brink of an awful 
chasm. One mad leap of our horse, and we should fall 
three fourths of a mile ! The heart ceases for a moment 
to beat. We hold our breath. The brain reels. No word 
of exclamation. Every voice is hushed. The soul stands 
in awe before this revelation of Omnipotence. This is 
God's work. Eternal might alone cleft the chasm, rived 



YOSEMITE. 



483 



the rock, and reared the lofty domes. So vast, grand, ma< 
jestic, so filled with God's presence, is this cathedral of 
his, that we dare not speak. Hang over the chasm, if 







; '1 





SOUTH DOME, — 5,000 FEET. 

your nerves are steady enough, and look into its depths. 
Those little green points, like plants just springing from 
a garden bed, are gigantic forest-trees. That foliage of 
brighter hue, no larger than a tuft of grass, is an oak, 
which has withstood the storms of centuries. That thread 
of silver winding through the valley is a river, which has 
poured its flood down a precipice twenty-seven hundred 
feet. The opposite wall of the chasm rises three fourths 
of a mile. It is a perpendicular rock, without seam or 
scar to mar its beauty. 

Overwhelnmed by the scene, we can only gaze as one 



484 QUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

who lias suddenly passed into a higher existence and 
beholds things "not lawful for a man to utter." We 
think of that holy city which Bunyan's Pilgrim saw 
beyond the river, from the Delectable Mountains. The 
sublimest imagery of the Eevelation of St. John, portray- 
ing the transcendant glory of the New Jerusalem, alone 
is adequate to describe it. "White clouds rest above it as 
the angelic host once hovered over the hills of Bethlehem, 
and sung the sweetest music ever heard on earth. The 
Merced, like the river of life proceeding from the throne 
of God, winds down from the celestial city making glad 
the peaceful vale. 

Like the song of the redeemed is the music of the many- 
voiced waters, swelling upward through the evening air. 
We behold beauty, grandeur, majesty, immensity, and 
omnipotence, and hear the Te Deum Laudamus ever 
ascending. 

There are eight persons in our company, and we join in 
singing Old Hundred ; but how insignificant ! The only 
fitting choir would be the whole church militant singing 
the Hallelujah Chorus of the Messiah ! 

The choirs are* hidden from our view, but we can 
hear them chanting, as priests chanted in the temple 
service at Jerusalem. 

" In his hand are the deep places of the earth. 
The strength of the hills is his also." 

Night is coming on, and we work our way down the 
zigzag path. It is too steep for easy riding ; if we do not 
dismount, the chances are that we shall be flying through 
the air and over the horse's head. 

The ladies of our party are equipped for mountain 
travel. They have left all impediments suitable for 
parlor and drawing-room behind, and appear in short 
skirts, stout boots, thick gloves, and hats broad enough 



YOSEMITE. 



485 



r W^' 



to protect the face from the sun. Invigorated by the 
fresh ah 1 of these lofty heights, with spirits quickened by 
the wonders of the place, they go down the trail like 
light-hearted chil- 
dren enjoying a -CiWiriUSx 
holiday. 

From Inspira- 
tion Point the val- 
ley may be seen 
through nearly its 
entire length. A 
portion of the 
chasm lies west of 
us, but the most 
wonderful section 
is eastward. 

A glance at the 
map on the next 
page will show the 
location of the prin- 
cipal points. 

From the bend in 
the Mariposa trail 
to Mirror Lake 
the distance is not 
far from seven miles 
mile. The barometer gives the elevation of the Merced 
Kiver, at the western end of the chasm, at four thousand 
and sixty feet, the Mirror Lake at a little more than four 
thousand one hundred feet. The Merced is about seventy 
feet in width, so clear that the finest particles of mica 
mixed with the pure white sand sparkle like silver in its 
crystal depths. Ferns, flowers, and grasses grow along its 
banks. 

The pines are as lofty as those upon the hills. There 




- ^ N^lC-^v 



EQUIPPED FOR YOSEMITE. 



The greatest width is about one 



486 



OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 



fiMVADA FALLS 



are smiling meadows and glens, so sheltered by overhang- 
ing crags that it is always twilight in the mossy shade. 

The valley wi- 
dens as we ap- 
proach its eastern 
end, and takes a 
form which may 
be likened to the 
outlines of a tran- 
sept in some 
grand cathedral, 
and through it 
flows the main 
fork of the Mer- 
ced. Going up 
this transept two 
miles and ascend- 
ing two thousand 
feet, we reach the 
Vernal Falls, and 
beyond them the 
Nevada Falls. 



A night's rest 




^smi^ LOmE 



#M& 



WB* 



f HE SENTINEL 

^SEHTIHEL CASCADE 
c /^;ThreeSISTERS. 




TOSEMITB VA 



in the hotel kept 
by Mr. Hutchins, 
who spreads be- 
fore us bountiful 
repasts of trout 
and venison, of 
blackberries and 
cream, and we are 
ready at an early 
morning hour to 
behold the won- 
ders of the valley 







NEVADA PALL. 



YOSEMITE. 487 

The pen cannot portray its grandeur. We attempt no 
detailed description. 

In our journey to the hotel we pass Tu-toch-ar-nu-lah, 
the " Great Chief," or El Capitan. It is a cliff of solid 





w& 







% ~- *** ffsi> ' *-r^**Sk~<- 'A" ^ 



EL CAPITAN. 



granite, without a searn, — rising perpendicularly from 
the meadow thirty-three hundred feet. The valley oppo- 
site is so narrow that, if some mighty convulsion were to 
send the Great Chief reeling southward, he would fall 
against the confronting wall. The Po-ho-no fall descends 
in silver spray, nine hundred feet from the edge of the 
rock into the chasm. 

The Indians reverenced it as the " Wind Spirit," but 
Anglo-Saxon taste has discarded the appropriate name and 
christened it the " Bridal Veil." 

All that is said of the beauty of the Staubbach — the 



488 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WOKLD. 

dust fall of Lauterbrunnen, the most beautiful of European 
waterfalls — can be said of this, and more, for this has a 
greater descent, a larger volume of water, with the added 
glory and grandeur of surrounding primeval forests. Simile 
and metaphor can convey no adequate conception of its 
ever- varying beauty. 
_\ Opposite the hotel are the Yosemite Falls. We gaze 
upward, vainly endeavoring to realize that the broad white 
stream has a descent of nearly twenty -seven hundred feet. 
Yet so it is. There are two perpendicular descents ; the 
upper one fifteen hundred feet, the lower one four hun- 
dred, with an intervening cascade. The frontispiece of 
this volume is faithfully reproduced from a photograph, 
and gives the relative height and surrounding scenery. 
The reader will obtain the best conception of the depth 
of the chasm by the forest-trees. Those in the foreground 
are lofty pines, and so are those in the background, near 
the cliff. They are from one hundred to one hundred and 
fifty feet in height. Pick out the tallest, measure its 
height by the eye, then set it against the precipice, and 
see how little way it reaches up. It is no more than a 
yard-stick against the pine itself, or the highest reach of 
the upraised arm of a child against a church-steeple. It 
is only by some such standard that we can comprehend 
the height of this wall. 

In the spring of the year, when the rains and the sun 
dissolve the snow upon the mountains, this cataract is a 
hundred times more majestic than in autumn. We have 
evidence of its power in the great boulders of granite 
around us, larger than a thirty-ton locomotive, which in 
years gone by came thundering down the dizzy height, 
snapping the largest trees as if they were but pipe- 
stems, and crushing and pulverizing the rocks. So the 
Almighty sets the forces of nature to grinding the solid 
granite into flour for human food, — the " River of Mercy "" 



YOSEMITE. 489 

wafting it out upon the meadows, to be transmuted by 
golden sunlight and nightly dews into ripened wheat and 
purpling grapes. 

Science is at a loss to account for the formation of this 
abyss. Was it chiselled out ? Then what became of the 
chips ? Or was there a falling in of the bottom, — a giv- 
ing way of the props beneath ? Omnipotent might alone 
could rend these miles of solid rock as if they had no more 
tenacity than pipe-clay, — the same Omnipotence which 
shields the sparrow and crowns the years with goodness. 

Beautiful names the Indians had for these cliffs and 
domes. On the opposite side of the valley is Wah-wah- 
Le-nah, — the Secret Hiding-Place. All Indian names of 
four syllables are accented on the third, as Min-ne-ha-ha, 
Altamaha. We have given a wrong pronunciation to 
Piscataqua ; the true rendering is Pis-ca-ta'-qua. And so 
with Niagara, which if pronounced properly would be 
M-a-ga'-ra. 

The three lofty cliffs which bore the sweet name of 
Wa-wa-le-neh are now known as the " Three Graces." 
-Upon, the same side of the valley, a little farther along, 



are the cathedral rocks and spires, — outlines of but- 
tressed walls and "lofty towers, in which we may trace a 
resemblance to the fagade of the minster of York or St. 
Gudule. Those edifices may be two hundred feet high, 
but these rise twenty-four hundred. Still farther along 
we stand amazed before the grandeur and beauty of the 
Sentinel Dome, an isolated rock, gray and hoary, its apex 
about four thousand feet above the floor of the cathedral. 

In the wildest gorges there is only twilight through the 
brightest day.' We look up to mountains rising five thou- 
sand feet above the valley, to gray domes, inaccessible to 
human feet, where the eagle builds his nest undisturbed, 
and where storms, tempests, and rolling thunder alone 
break the awful solitude. 

21* 



490 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Siding up the main valley to the place where the 
Merced mirrors the grandeur in a lakelet, we stand be- 
tween the North and South Domes. The peak on the 
north side of the chasm is as symmetrical as the roof of 
St. Sophia, but half of the South Dome has been cleft 
away. Lay a round Di tch cheese upon a block, and cut 
it through at a stroke and the cleavage would not be 
smoother or more complete than this ! It is straight- 
down two thousand feet, and then slightly deflected 
twenty-five hundred farther to the level of the valley. 

It is between five and six thousand feet from the lake 
to the summit of this riven dome. No exact measure- 
ment has been obtained, for it is inaccessible. Five thou- 
sand two hundred and eight feet make a mile. Measure 
that distance along the road, or think of the White Moun- 
tains as riven from the Tip-Top House down to the level 
of the sea, — the cut as sharp and clean as if made by 
one single stroke of the sword of the Almighty ! 

Such is the architecture of this cathedral. How insig- 
nificant and contemptible the grandest structures from 
human hands when compared with this ! The apex of the 
dome of St. Peter's, the noblest edifice of Christendom, is 
about four hundred feet high, and men stand beneath it 
and gaze in wonder at the vastness and immensity, admir- 
ing the genius of Michael Angelo which could plan such 
an edifice. But what is St. Peter's to this ? less than the 
little block-house reared by a toddling child upon the 
parlor floor. 

Bring all the gi and cathedrals of the Old World, with 
their wealth of ornate architecture, and frescoed walls, 
and what are they in comparison with this mountain 
edifice ? Bring New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Balti- 
more, Washington, Chicago, — all the churches, ware- 
houses, shops, stores, dwellings, — tumble them in, and 
it will not be half full ! 




SS Ti* iitSiffisSSKHK 



SALT LAKE. 491 

Comparison, measurement, metaphor fail. We can only 
gaze in awe while in this temple of the Almighty, and 
say, with hushed breath, 

" Lo, God is here ! Let us adore, 

Aud own how wondrous is this place ! " 



CHAPTEE LXI. 

SALT LAKE. 

FROM the top of an overland stage-coach we have our 
first look at the chief city of the Latter-Day Saints 
as we approach it from the west. We behold a beautiful 
panorama. Northward is the Great Salt Lake, calmly re- 
posing beneath an autumnal sky, not a ripple on its sur- 
face, not a riving thing in its transparent waters ; a 
solitude as profound as that brooding over the Dead 
Sea of Palestine. Eastward rises a mountain wall, white 
with snow at the top, with hues like the ever-changing ani- 
line dyes upon the slopes and in the ravines and gorges. 
Southward is the Salt Lake valley, through which flows 
the Jordan, — not the stream dear to the Church Univer- 
sal, but the Jordan of this Latter-Day Church, flowing- 
through a valley ten or fifteen miles wide. 

Before us lies the city, spread out upon a gentle slope. 
Many of the houses are surrounded by gardens, giving it 
the appearance of a large place, whereas the population 
does not exceed twenty-five thousand. 

In the spring of 1847 Brigham Young, with one hun- 
dred and forty-three pioneers, started from Missouri to 
find a place far from civilization where the church estab- 
lished by Joseph Smith might have room for its full 



492 OUK NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

development. They arrived in this valley on the 24th of 
July, the same year. They were one thousand miles from 
the nearest Gentile. Beyond them was the great unex- 
plored desert, and still beyond was the Sierra Nevada, and 
beyond that was California. Gold had not then been 
discovered, or if discovered the news had not reached the 
Eastern States. Amid, the seclusion of the mountains, at 
the heart of the continent, with room for expansion to 
Mexico on the south, the Pacific on the west, the frigid 
zone on the north, with the Eocky Mountains, that 
would be forever a barrier between them and those whom 
they deemed persecutors, the Saints determined to build a 
church and establish the State of Deseret, a religion and 
government both diverse and antagonistic to any existing 
ecclesiastical organization or republican order of govern- 
ment. 

It was a forbidding prospect. This was a verdureless 
valley. The wild artemisia, which feeds on alkali, was the 
only growth of the plains. Along the river there were a 
few willows. Up in the mountains there was lumber, and 
when the spring rains came there was grass on the hill- 
sides ; but the heats of July and August parched the 
ground and baked it into solid cake. Swarms of grass- 
hoppers came from the sands and devoured all vegetation. 
But streams trickled from the mountain-sides, and the 
settlers saw that they could be turned to account for ir- 
rigation. Ditches were dug, potatoes planted, bricks 
moulded, cabins reared, a city laid out. Food became 
scarce, wolves, foxes, fish, sage-roots, seeds of the moun- 
tain pine, were consumed. The first grain crop was a 
failure. It was not more than six inches high, and the 
grasshoppers devoured it. Many settlers became dis- 
couraged and returned to Missouri, and others died. Then 
came the rush of overland emigrants to California. The 
gold-fever took away some, but those who remained had 
strong faith and zeal. 



SALT LAKE. 493 

They had covenanted at Nauvoo never to cease their 
efforts nor relax their zeal till every man, woman, and 
child who wished to come should have the means of 
reaching Salt Lake. A missionary fund was established, 
and missionaries went out in 1850 to England, Sweden, 
Norway, and Denmark, and thousands of converts came 
trooping to this land. The missionaries went to the poor, 
the toiling, the hopeless. In this far-off valley there was 
no moneyed power to oppress them; no laws to grind 
them down. Here was freedom, work, plenty, comfort, 
— a blessed future for time, and in the bosom of the 
church bliss for eternity. They preached the new gospel. 
Kevelation had not died out with the Apostles, but it was 
still continued through the servant of the Lord Jesus, that 
holy apostle and head of the church on earth, Brigham 
Young. Come and hear the tidings, be baptized for the 
remission of sins ! Accept the bliss ! 

Is it any wonder that willing ears and consenting 
hearts were found when the attractiveness of this new 
Zion was preached to the poor, toiling, ignorant people 
of Europe ? England at once became the grand recruit- 
ing-ground. Thousands who wished to come to America 
found that the church of the Latter-Day Saints had the 
machinery of emigration in operation, agents to help, 
steamships to carry them. The church was ready to ad- 
vance money to enable them to reach the land blessed 
of the Lord. 

Benefits for this life and special blessing for the life 
eternal were influential motives. The Welsh miner, who 
had groped for years in darkness in the collieries of Eng- 
land, here might walk over his own green acres. The 
men of Denmark, who found it hard work to keep soul 
and body together on the marshes of their native land, 
here could find ease and comfort in a genial clime. And 
if there were men with strong passions anywhere in the 



494 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

wide world, here, in the bosom of the church, they could 
religiously gratify all carnal desire, and serve God ac- 
ceptably while so doing. 

The church maintains a rigid police, — ordinary, special, 
and ecclesiastical. The ordinary and special police are 
appointed by the Mayor, Mr. Apostle Wells, — Brigham 
Young's right-hand man, chosen by him to administer 
secular affairs, — and hold their office at his pleasure. The 
ecclesiastical policemen are the bishops of the church. 
The city is divided into twenty wards, each under the 
superintendence of a bishop, who receives his appoint- 
ment from Brigham. Subordinate to the bishops, and 
appointed by them, are teachers, who have each a small 
district. They make frequent visits to every family, cate- 
chise men, women, and children, not only upon doctrine 
and belief, but upon worldly matters. Their reports go 
to Brigham. 

If a Mormon is disaffected, or indulges in religious 
doubts, he is at once surrounded with difficulties. Mer- 
chants do not care to trade with him. If a laborer, he 
will not be able to find employment. He must cast out 
his doubts, accept unhesitatingly the authority and dogmas 
of the church, and all will be well. There is law and 
order in Paris and in Borne. Louis Napoleon has his 
secret police, and so has the Pope. Brigham, combining 
the systems of Fouche, of the first Empire, and Ignatius 
Loyola, of the Order of the Jesuits, has law and order in 
Utah. 

The theocratic state is a harp of many strings, and 
Brigham's fingers sweep every wire ; or it may be likened 
to an organ, Brigham at the key -board, and every pipe 
responsive to his touch. 

Near the centre of the city, on the west side of the 
main street, is Tabernacle Square, containing the old 
and new tabernacles and the foundations for the Temple. 



SALT uAKE. 



495 



The rounded roof of the new tabernacle, viewed from the 
outside, resembles a huge oval dish-cover. Approaching 
the city from the west, it is seen looming above all other 
edifices, and you think of a hotel dining-table, the great 
meat-platter with its cover in the centre. The building 
will seat fifteen thousand persons. At one end, raised 
several feet above the general area, are the seats for the 
prophet and his apostles and elders, also for the choir and 
orchestra. An Englishman is constructing a large organ, 
the pipes being obtained from Boston. 




THE TABERNACLE. 



" There is not a city in the world so virtuous as this/' 
is the remark of a prominent Mormon. 

Certainly, the outside look is fair, and that form of 
vice known as the " social evil " is not so apparent here 
as in other cities. The Mormons would have us un- 



496 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 

derstand that their religion is purer than any other.. 
They claim that it purifies society. In a book of ser- 
mons we find it was revealed to Brigham that the best 
service which men can render to God is the multipli- 
cation of the human race. As soon, therefore, as girls, 
arrive at a marriageable age they become concubines. 
In other parts of the world misplaced affection, or a 
low sense of moral obligation, or poverty, leads many 
from the path of virtue; but here the church teaches, 
that concubinage is ordained of God. To accept it is to 
glorify him ; to reject it is to reject eternal happiness. A 
man may have a score of concubines ; he may be old,, 
hateful, repulsive, but for a girl to repel his addresses is 
to despise the gospel. Brigham consents, parents urge : 
there is the example of Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solo- 
mon. In the Sunday school and from the pulpit the 
doctrine of celestial marriage is taught ; and so natural 
affection and the instincts of the soul alike are stifled,. 
and the shrinking maiden is made a prostitute in the 
name of religion. 

A few steps east of the tithing-office is a three-storied 
building, standing end to the road, large enough and long 
enough for a factory boarding-house. It has a steep 
shingled roof, with ten gabled windows on each side. 
On the balcony over the door is a crouching lion. 

This is the harem. A covered passage leads from the- 
ground floor to another building east, in which is the 
general business office of Brigham Young, and from which 
telegraph wires run to every hamlet in the Territory. 
Another passage leads to the private office of Brigham, 
back of which is his bedroom, where his concubines wait 
upon him, — Amelia to-day, Emeline to-morrow, Lucy the 
day after. 

Brigham's lawfully wedded wife was Mary Ann Angell, 
a native of New York, the mother of five children, — 



• SALT LAKE.. 497 

Joseph, or " Joe," as he is called at Salt Lake, Brigham 
A., John, Alice, and Luna. She married him while he 
was a young man, before he was a prophet, and with him 
accepted the revelations of Joseph Smith. She lives in a 
large stone building in the rear of the harem. Brigham 
does not often visit her now. 

The number of his concubines is not known to the 
Gentile world. One report makes them seventy, another 
only thirty. It is probable that the larger number includes 
those sealed to Brigham for eternity and not for time. 

His first concubine is Lucy Decker. She is the lawful 
wife of Isaac Seely, mother of two children ; but Brigham 
■could make her a queen in heaven, and so, bidding good 
by to Isaac, she became first concubine, and has added 
eight children to the prophet's household. 

Her younger sister, Clara Decker, also aspired to be a 
heavenly queen, and became his second concubine, and 
is the mother of four children. 

The third is Harriet Cook, mother of one turbulent 
boy, who does pretty much as he pleases. So does the 
mother, who, when in her tantrums, does not hesitate to 
send Brigham to the realm of evil spirits. 

Lucy Bigelow is said to be one of the most lady-like 
of all the concubines. Mrs. Waite, wife of one of the 
United States judges of the Territory, who saw all of the 
ladies of the harem, describes her as of middling stature, 
dark brown hair, blue eyes, aquiline nose, and a pretty 
mouth. She is pleasant and affable. 

Miss Twiss has sandy hair, round features, blue eyes, 
low forehead, freckled face, but, as she has no children, 
is not of much account in the eyes of the prophet. She 
looks after his clothes, sews buttons on his shirts, and acts 
the part of a housewife. 

Maitha Bowker is another of the same sort, quiet, neat 
in dress, motherless, and therefore of little account. 



498 OUK NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

Harriet Barney, like Lucy Decker, left her husband 
and three children to become a concubine, that she might 
have exaltation in Heaven, but has not been honored in the 
harem, not having added any children to the household. 

Eliza Burgess is the only Englishwoman in the harem, 
small of stature, black eyes, quick-tempered, the mother 
of several children. 

Ellen Eockwood, daughter of the jail-keeper, is another 
of the unfortunate women, not having had children. 

Mrs. Hampton, whose first husband died at Nauvoo, 
afterward married a man by the name of Cole, who left 
her at Nauvoo and went to California. Brigham, hearing 
of his departure, sent for the wife, who obeyed the sum- 
mons and became a concubine, lived in the harem eight 
years, then was cast out by Brigham. She now lives at 
Ogden City with her son, Nephi Hampton. 

Mary Bigelow is another castaway. She lived in the 
harem several years, but Brigham became tired of her and 
sent her away. 

Margaret Pierce is another who, not having added to 
the glory of the prophet by being a mother, is of little 
account, though still in the harem. 

Emeline Free, as described by Mrs. Waite, is the " light 
of the harem," tall, graceful, mild, violet eyes, fair hair,, 
inclined to curl. She was a lively young lady, and Brig- 
ham fell in love with her. Her father and mother were 
opposed to polygamy, but Emeline had ambitious projects, 
accepted his proposal, and became the favorite of the 
harem. The favor shown her brought on a row. The 
other concubines carried this jealousy to such a pitch, that 
the prophet had a private passage constructed from his 
bedroom to Emeline's room, so that his visits to her and 
hers to him could be made without observation. She has 
contributed greatly to his glory in the future world by 
presenting him with eight children in this. 



SALT LAKE. 499 

The poetess of the church is Eliza Snow, said to be 
quite intellectual In one of her poems published in 
Brigham's paper, the "Deseret News," she thus exalts the 
Mormon religion : — 

" We have the ancient order. 
To us by prophets given ; 
And here we have the pattern 
As things exist in heaven." 

From which we are to understand that there are harems 
in heaven ! So the Turk believes. 

Zina Huntington also writes poetry, and acts as a sort 
of governess to the numerous children of the prophet. 
She came to Salt Lake with her lawfully wedded hus- 
band, Dr. Jacobs. Brigham liked her, sent the doctor on 
a missionary tour to England, took his wife into the 
harem and became the spiritual father of her children ; 
made her his temporal concubine, that he might also exalt 
her to be a queen in Heaven. The doctor returned from 
his mission, apostatized, and went to California, where he 
now resides. 

Amelia Partridge has added four children to the proph- 
et's household. She is said to be of a sweet disposition, 
and is not jealous when the prophet turns his attentions 
to the other concubines. 

Mrs. Augusta Cobb was formerly a Bostonian, became 
converted to Mormonism eighteen years ago, left her home, 
and accepted a position in the harem. 

Mrs. Smith, a devout Mormon, wished to be sealed to 
Brigham for eternity, but the prophet did not care to 
make her a heavenly queen. He sealed her to Joseph 
Smith for eternity and to himself for time. 

One " poor unfortunate," Clara Chase, became a maniac, 
and has gone where the wicked cease from troubling. 

Amelia Folsom, a native of Portsmoiith, N". H., is the 
mistress of the harem. She entered it on the 29th of 



500 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

January, 1863. Her age is about nineteen, and the 
prophet's sixty-three. She has things pretty much her 
own way, — private box at the theatre, carriage of her 
own, silks, satins, a piano, parlor elegantly furnished. If 
the prophet slights her, she pays him in his own coin. 

Such is an outline of this saintly household ! — thirty 
women or more, and seventy or eighty children. Unless 
human nature is vastly different in Utah from what it is 
in other places, there must be many family jars'. The out- 
ward appearance is that of a peaceable and orderly com- 
munity, but if there is any of truth in common report, it 
is one of the saddest communities in the world. 

In the Orient there is one institution which has long 
been established, — concubinage. The modern Turk, the 
Arab, Hindoo, Feegian, and the King of Ashantee, all fol- 
low in the footsteps of their fathers. They keep concu- 
bines by the score. The harem never has flourished un- 
der the Christian civilization of Europe, but it has been 
planted in Utah by the prophet and apostles of the 
church of the Latter-Day Saints, and is thriving with 
great vigor. 

It is one of the anomalies of the nineteenth century. 
The author of "'New America" would have us believe 
that polygamy at Salt Lake is peculiarly an outgrowth of 
American institutions ; but the great body of recruits 
come from that author's own land. There is nothing in 
democracy any more than in autocracy to grow such a 
an excrescence as that of Utah. It is nourishing now, but 
slavery has disappeared from the land, and the time is 
not far distant when the country will be purged of poly- 
gamy, — by peaceful means if possible, by forcible if 
there is no other way. 



THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 501 



CHAPTEE LXII. 

THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 

IN" July, 1862, Congress loaned trie national credit to 
the amount of fifty million dollars to two railroad 
companies, — the Central, building east from Sacramento, 
and the Union, west from Omaha. The distance between 
the two points is one thousand seven hundred and 
twenty-one miles. The public had little faith in the 
enterprise, but there were some gentlemen who had taken 
long looks ahead, and among them Governor Leland 
Stanford, his brother Mr. Charles Stanford, Judge Crocker 
of Sacramento, Mr. Durant of New York, Mr. Ames of 
Massachusetts, who were ready to take hold of the enter- 
prise. The Central Company was first organized. The 
gentlemen connected with it had already constructed 
a wagon-road over the Sierra Nevada range, and knew 
what difficulties would be encountered. Most people 
shook their heads at the undertaking, but the State of 
California aided it by a subsidy of $ 1,500,000. 

Work was commenced at Sacramento in January, 1863. 
The track was carried for a long distance on trestle-work 
over the low lands, which are flooded by the Sacramento 
during the rainy season. The foot-hills of the Sierra 
Nevada chain are reached at the little town of Eocklin, 
twenty-two miles northeast of Sacramento, at an eleva- 
tion of two hundred and sixty-nine feet. From this 
point to the summit of the Sierras the distance is eighty- 
three miles, and the elevation overcome six thousand 
seven hundred and seventy-four feet, or nearly eighty-two 
feet per mile for the entire distance. 



502 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

The ridge between the American Eiver and Bear Creek, 
both tributaries of the Sacramento, is a series of hills, 
spurs, ravines, deep gullies, gorges, and precipices. How 
to get over or around them, hold what has been gained 
of elevation, fit curve to tangent and tangent to reversed 
curve, avoid rock-cutting and deep filling, projecting spurs 
on the one hand and deep ravines on the other, with curves 
of small resistance, were the grand questions for the en- 
gineers to whom the work was intrusted. 

It was found that a uniform grade of eighty -two feet 
to the mile could not be had ; that there were long reaches 
where a grade of one hundred and sixteen feet to the 
mile, with frequent reversed curves, must be resorted to. 
Twenty years ago no engineer would have thought it pos- 
sible to construct and work a road under such conditions. 
But the line- is completed. It runs along the edge of 
precipices where we look down fifteen hundred feet into 
a dark canyon. It crosses ravines on bridges two hundred 
and sixty-five feet high, — loftier than Bunker Hill Monu- 
ment by thirty feet ! 

In some places clay was encountered, of such a slip- 
pery nature that thousands of tons came down upon the 
track in a night ; but patience, perseverance, and ten 
thousand plodding Chinamen overcame all difficulties. 
Thirteen tunnels have been cut through solid granite, 
that on the summit being one thousand six hundred and 
fifty-nine feet in length, another eight hundred and sixty- 
three feet, and the aggregate amounting to six thousand 
and fifty. 

In addition, there is an immense amount of rock cut- 
ting along the mountain-sides, where gunpowder and 
nitro-glycerine have been freely used. Even in the earth 
excavations the contractors have found it profitable to 
blow up the hills, loosening tons of solid earth at a 
single discharge. To ride over this line, to see how the 



THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 



503 




504 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

work has been done, to behold the great boulders hurled 
into the valley, broken into fragments, and a solid, sub- 
stantial, well-built road laid over the tops of the moun- 
tains, sets one to thinking that this must be the work 
of the Titans. 

But all the construction material — iron, engines, spikes, 
implements, screws, nuts, bolts, shovels, spades, crow- 
bars, chains, car- wheels, glass, the thousand articles to be 
found in railway shops — had to come from the East by 
Panama or Cape Horn. Ships failed to arrive on time. 
Articles ordered months in advance were not at hand 
when wanted. The track-layers were out of spikes, the 
car-builders in want of bolts. Engines were not forth- 
coming at the time appointed. Carpenters, masons, 
bridge-builders, were not to be had. There was a de- 
ficiency of rolling stock, and the company could not 
transport its own material. The traders of all Upper 
California, Nevada, and Idaho were clamorous to have 
their goods transported before the winter set in. The 
steamboats from San Francisco to Sacramento were loaded 
to the water's edge with merchandise, the warehouses in 
Sacramento were filled with boxes, bales, and barrels, with 
machinery and furniture, which the railroad could not 
take away for want of cars and engines. There was an 
army of from fifteen to twenty thousand men out in the 
desert of Utah to be fed, besides thousands of oxen and 
horses. Every pound of grain, flour, meat, hay, everything 
consumed, had to be sent up from Sacramento. 

To keep the army in rations, forward ties, timber, and 
iron, required an energy like that exhibited during the 
war by the quartermasters of General Grant's armies. 

The snow region of the Sierras is about fifty miles 
wide. The deposition of moisture on the Pacific slope 
in winter gives a great depth of snow on the moun- 
tains. To make the hue secure from avalanches, numer- 



THE PACIFIC KAILROAD. 505 

cms sheds have been constructed, which, if joined together, 
would make about twenty-four miles of sheltered way. 
They are built over excavations where the plough cannot 
throw the snow from the track. 

Eeaching the summit of the Sierras at an elevation of 
seven thousand and forty-two feet, the line follows down 
the Truckee Eiver, into the great central basin of the con- 
tinent, embracing the State of Nevada and Territory of 
Utah. A more dreary, cheerless region cannot be im- 
agined. There are treeless wastes, barren hills, and wide 
plains, where the wild artemisia is the only vegetation. 
The streams are bitter. The ground is filled with alkali. 
The soil would be fertile were there water for irrigation ; 
but from the eastern slope of the Sierras to Salt Lake 
there is only a dreary desert. 

The road has been built by the Central Company from 
Sacramento to the town of Ogden. and from that place to 
Omaha by the Union Company, which was organized in 
July, 1864, and which has displayed an energy equal to 
that shown by the Central. 

Work was commenced at Omaha in the fall of the 
same year. On the 1st of January, 1866, forty miles were 
open to travel ; a year later, three hundred and five miles ; 
on the 1st of January, 1868, five hundred and forty miles ; 
and in May, 1869, the locomotive ran from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific. 

The line beyond Omaha lies across the treeless plain 
which extends to the Black Hills. To throw up the road- 
bed was comparatively an easy task, to obtain timber for 
ties was a more serious matter. The ascent is so gradual 
from the Missouri to the summit of the ridge which 
divides the Missouri slope from the great central basin 
of the continent, that the gain in elevation is almost 
imperceptible. 

Geographers have described the Black Hills as the 

22 



506 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

backbone of the continent. Imagination pictures them 
as a lofty range of mountains, but they are hills rising 
from a plateau. Southward and northward from the 
summit we see blue mountains capped with snow far 
away, but the highest elevation on the line, eight thou- 
sand two hundred and sixty-two feet, is gained by a 
grade of ninety feet per mile, and that only for a short 
distance. 

The village of Sherman, situated on the summit, is 
probably higher than any other town in the United 
States. 

Westward of the Black Hills are the Laramie Plains, 
which have a general elevation of seven thousand feet 
above the sea ; and farther on is G-reen Eiver, running 
south, discharging its waters into the Gulf of California. 
Passing over the ridge beyond it, the line follows down 
Weber canyon to Salt Lake, and up its northern shore to 
Ogden, where Chinamen working eastward and Irish- 
men westward have joined hands in laying the last rail 
of a road which spans the continent. 



CHAPTER LXIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

ON the eighth day of May, 1869, the last rail was 
laid between the Atlantic and Pacific, and the 
locomotive ran from the Penobscot to the Golden Gate. 
Workmen extended the line eastward to the British 
Dominion, and the time soon came when Halifax was 
but six days from San Francisco. Thirteen days will 
suffice to bear the westward- bound traveller from St. 



CONCLUSION. 507 

George's Channel to the shores of the Pacific. Now 
the Londoner, sailing east or west, will make Hong Kong 
in about forty-three days. A third of a century ago 
Dr. Lardner proposed to eat the first steamship which 
should cross the Atlantic, and now steam-ferries are 
established between all lands. 

But a little longer time has elapsed since George Ste- 
phenson ran his first rude engine over a tramway ; now 
Europe, America, and India are belted with railroads. 
Advancement is the characteristic feature of the century. 
Steamships and locomotives are giving new life to old 
nations. 

Coal, the stored-up sunlight of a million years, is the 
grand agent. Liberty lights the fire, and Christian civil- 
ization is the engine which is taking the whole world in 
its train. 

There are but three aggressive nations, — England, 
America, and Eussia, — and together they are to give civil- 
ization to six hundred millions of the human race. Eng^ 
land is already moving the dead mass of India ; Eussia 
is advancing upon Central Asia, and America, now brought 
in direct contact with China, not by force of arms, but 
by commercial intercourse and good-will, is to make hen 
power felt among the millions of that empire. 

After an absence of two years and five months, we have 
returned to our home, having lost some prejudices and 
gained new views. America does not possess all the vir- 
tues in the world. We have something yet to learn. If 
we have larger liberty than any other people, we must 
confess, on the other hand, that there is no city in any 
land so badly governed as the commercial metropolis 
of this country. We may revise our liberty without 
detriment to ourselves. 

If, in the interior of China, there is a strong prejudice 
against foreigners, we are to remember that it has its 



508 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 

counterpart in California and Oregon. If we are saints, 
we shall do well to remember that it is saintly to observe 
the golden rule. 

If we have something yet to learn, on the other hand 
America is the great teacher of the nations. The com- 
pact signed in the cabin of the Mayflower is the world's 
charter of liberty. The thunder of Gettysburg is rever- 
berating, round the world. The people of Europe are 
keeping step to the march of the great Kepublic. 

We have returned to America with a stronger love for 
its institutions and an enlarged conception of its future 
greatness. Our country is moving on as no other nation 
ever advanced, and the world is following in our path. 
Eemembering what the Union has cost and what it is 
worth, we hail with swelling hearts our native land once 
more. 

" Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, 
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears. 
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, 
Are all with thee, — are all with thee ! ' ' 



JUL -1 B>,3 



